


Scorpius Malfoy and The Unknown Journey

by thraenthraen



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Anxiety Attacks, Asian Character(s), Bechdel Test Pass, Black Character(s), Black Harry Potter, Canon Compliant, Chinese Character, Disability, Disabled Character, Disabled Character of Color, F/F, F/M, Female Character of Color, Gen, HP: Epilogue Compliant, Harry Potter Next Generation, House Elves, Hufflepuff Common Room, Hufflepuff Scorpius Malfoy, Indian Character, Interracial Relationship, Japanese Character(s), Jewish Character, Korean Characters, LGBTQ Character of Color, LGBTQ Female Character of Color, LGBTQ Jewish Character(s), Latino Character, Lesbian Character, Lesbian Character of Color, M/M, Male Character of Color, Malfoy Family, Mental Health Issues, Multi, Muslim Character, Neurodiversity, Original Character(s), Other, POV Scorpius Malfoy, Physical Disability, Polish Character(s), Possibly Not Pottermore Compliant, Queer Character, Selkies, Trans Character, Trans Female Character, Transgender
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-09
Updated: 2016-08-05
Packaged: 2018-04-13 21:15:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 18
Words: 40,550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4537653
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thraenthraen/pseuds/thraenthraen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nineteen years after the Second Wizarding War, young Scorpius Malfoy is about to embark on his own journey at Hogwarts. Though the battles of his parents are long past, Hogwarts is never very quiet for long, and Scorpius may soon find that life at Hogwarts isn't as simple as he expects. Something is lurking in its depths, and like it or not, Scorpius and his friends may soon find out just what.</p><p>On a temporary break, will return to weekly updates summer/fall 2017.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Letters from Everyone

**Author's Note:**

> Updates weekly. Tags added as the story goes. Hope you enjoy the story!

The flutter of owls seemed never-ending that week. There were letters from their parents (“Oh, look what she’s written,” Astoria scoffed, tossing a letter from her mother to Draco, “Passive-aggressive rubbish, the whole thing.”), packages from friends (“Ah, Greg’s sent his old bat,” Draco laughed. “‘In case Scorpius needs to fend off his mother’s Bludgers,’ he says.” Astoria rolled her eyes.), piles of sweets (“Going to rot out his teeth before they even come in!”), and notes of congratulations and well-wishes from former colleagues, business partners, admirers, and even the Minister of Magic.

“Don’t put that next to my sister’s letter!” Astoria protested when Draco tried to set the note from the Minister on the nightstand. “Put it in the pile with all the others.” Another owl swooped in.

“Here, I’ve got it.” Draco reached out to take the note, but the owl dodged him and landed beside Astoria, who smiled at the familiar handwriting on the envelope: _Astoria Greengrass and baby, probably in bed, Malfoy Manor, Wiltshire, England._ “Who’s it from?” he said, tossing the Minister’s note aside.

Astoria ignored him as she opened the envelope. Inside was a picture of a woman sitting in bed beside her toddler son and holding an infant. The woman and toddler smiled and waved up from the photo. Astoria flipped the photo over. _James, 2, and Albus Severus, six weeks_ and a quick note from Ginny. “Looks like the Potters just had a kid, too,” Astoria said casually. Draco stiffened.

“Another?” Draco said, trying (but failing) to sound nonchalant. Though Draco had accepted that his wife and Ginny Weasley had gotten on with each other during their years playing for the Harpies (and had even found himself cheering when Weasley would score in matches), he much preferred a life with no mention of Potters or Weasleys at all.

“Relax, dear. It’s a photo, not a playdate. And anyway, they’ve named him Albus Severus.”

“ _Albus Severus Potter_?” Draco laughed. “Might as well put a lightning bolt-shaped scar on the boy’s forehead, the amount of stares—”

“Which is why we’ll raise Scorpius not to pay any mind whether someone’s got a famous father. And anyway, you’ve missed my point: they’ve named the boy after Snape.”

“Wonder whose idea that was.”

“Shall I invite them over for tea so you can ask?” Astoria teased. Draco was about to say just how uninvited the Potters were in his house when he caught his wife’s amused expression and sighed. A moment later, a smirk crept across his face.

“Here, give me the photo. I’ll put it beside your sister’s letter.” Astoria rolled her eyes and tossed the photo to her husband. As he set the photo down on the nightstand, his eyes caught the message scrawled on the back: _See you at Kings Cross_.


	2. Kings Cross

Eleven years had passed since that flurry of letters had descended upon Malfoy Manor. Along the walls now hung countless pictures of a blonde boy at various ages: zooming around on a toy broomstick, giggling at the puffs of smoke from a child’s potions set, hanging upside down from the great oak tree behind Malfoy Manor, making silly faces in portraits alongside his parents, laughing beside friends and cousins, fidgeting in formal photographs next to extended family at weddings and other special events. Though young Scorpius greatly resembled his father in physical appearance, there was never any doubt which boy looked out from the photographs: where Draco had scowled through his youth, Scorpius grinned, and where Draco held his nose up haughtily, Scorpius dove in face-first.

And as the sun rose upon Malfoy Manor this particular morning, Scorpius Malfoy had, quite literally, done just that.

“Scorpius!” his father said sharply, looking over the top of the Daily Prophet he was reading. Scorpius lifted his head, which was now dripping with milk and pieces of cereal, and smiled happily at his father.

“Yeah?”

His father sighed. “Scorpius, don’t put your head in your bowl. You’re getting cereal everywhere.” Scorpius frowned. “Please.”

“I was just checking for nargles. You know, I read that sometimes they like to hide in milk. Did you know that, Dad?”

“I made sure to get nargle-free milk, dear,” Scorpius’ mother said as she walked into the kitchen. “Scourgify.” She flicked her wand, and the milk and cereal dripping from Scorpius’ face and hair vanished. “Is it nargle-free?”

“I think so.”

“Well, finish up then. You still need to change into some Muggle clothes, and you don’t want to be late, do you?”

“No, ma’am!” Scorpius straightened up and started shovelling cereal in his mouth. She tousled Scorpius hair as she brushed past to sit beside her husband.

“Look at this,” Scorpius’s father said, handing the newspaper to his wife, “Carmichael’s resigned.”

“From Aquatics? Didn’t Shaklebolt just put him in the post?”

“Last month, yeah. Carmichael's quoted saying he was ‘drowning in a sea of paperwork.’” Scorpius’ mother gave a hollow laugh. “Thinks he's clever, I guess.”

“Ravenclaw, was he?” she said.

“Do you think _I'll_ be in Ravenclaw?” Scorpius asked suddenly, dropping the spoon loudly on the table. It was the sort of question Scorpius’ parents preferred to avoid: they both _hoped_ Scorpius would be in Slytherin, both because they wanted their son in their own house just out of a sense of nostalgia and family tradition and because they feared how their own families would react if he weren’t. A certain tapestry, which depicted part of Scorpius’ family tree, featured burn marks for family members who had been disowned for various crimes--including being sorted into the wrong house.

“Probably not,” his father said. “Our whole family have been in Slytherin for generations.”

“But I’m clever, aren’t I?” Scorpius asked.

“Of course you are, dear,” his mother said. “But don’t you think Dad’s clever too? You can still be clever and be in Slytherin.”

“Just like Mum’s brave, but she didn’t go to Gryffindor,” his father added, reassuring himself more than Scorpius.

Scorpius’ mother laughed. “Imagine the look on my mother’s face if I’d been put in Gryffindor.”

“Will Grandmother be angry if I’m in Gryffindor?” Scorpius asked worriedly. His parents exchanged a quick glance.

“Don’t worry about her, Scorpius.”

“But—”

“I’m sure she’d be much more upset if you didn’t get sorted at all because you sat here wondering all morning and missed your train!” Scorpius spun his head toward the clock on the far wall and leapt out of his chair when he saw the time.

“I’m going, I’m going, I’m going!” Scorpius said as he rushed out. He raced across the entry room, bounded up the stairs, turned the corner, flung himself into his room, and yanked the Muggle clothes his mother had set out for him off his bed. Scorpius furrowed his brow, fumbling around with the pieces of clothing to figure out how they went on.

After a few minutes, he’d managed to get the black trousers and socks on right and the white button-up at least  on . He tied the strange, long blue-and-white plaid strip of fabric around his waist only to realise there was a long strip of black leather that also seemed to be a belt. He shrugged, put that around his waist too, shoved his feet into the shiny black shoes, grabbed the navy blue blazer, and ran to find his parents, stuffing his arms into the sleeves as he went.

“Ready!” he yelled, as he hurried down the stairs, one hand now clutching the side of his trousers which had started slipping off. He skidded to a halt in the kitchen and threw his arms out to show off the clothes. “Look! I’m a Muggle!” Scorpius grinned at his parents.

“You’ve put your shoes on wrong again,” his father sighed. Scorpius looked down at his feet. As he often did even with his own normal shoes, he’d put his left shoe on his right foot and his right on his left. No wonder the shoes were so uncomfortable.

“Oh. Oops.”

“And here,” his mother said, walking over to fix his clothes, “I forgot you’ve never worn Muggle clothes.” She undid the leather belt and put it through the loops on Scorpius’ trousers, pulling them back up as she did and tightening the belt so they’d no longer slip down. The pants were still too big for Scorpius, who was small and thin, so she knelt down, rolled up the cuffs until they were just off the floor, and with a wave of her wand, restitched them to a better length. It wasn't a great hemming job, but it was just for the day, so it would do.

“Thanks.”

“And this one,” she said, undoing the blue and white fabric from his waist, “goes around your neck, I think.” She placed the fabric on his shoulders and looked at it quizzically. “Oh, your buttons are all off, Scorpius.” A couple flicks of her wand, and Scorpius' shirt unbuttoned, rebuttoned (correctly this time), and tucked itself into his trousers. She picked up the ends of the blue and white fabric and tried to figure out how it went.

“Here,” Scorpius’ father said as he stood up and crossed over to them. “That's just a tie. Muggles wear them all the time.” He pulled out his wand and gave it a couple waves, and the fabric twisted and looped and tied itself around Scorpius' neck. “Windsor knot.” Scorpius and his mother both stared wide-eyed at him.

“Where did you learn that?” Scorpius' mother asked, looking both shocked and impressed. He shifted uncomfortably.

“I, er, used to go for walks. Didn't want to stand out.”

“Walks? In muggle—”

“We're going to miss the train if we don't get going now,” he interrupted. “Scorpius, fix your shoes. Mum and I have to put our Muggle clothes on too, and then we'll meet you in the entry with your trunk, okay?”

“Okay, Dad!”

“And please tie the laces,” Scorpius' mother added. “Don't just shove your feet in.”

“Yes, Mum.” And with that, Scorpius' parents left the room. Scorpius sat at the table and, after quite a few minutes of fumbling with the shoes, managed to get them on the correct feet and tied as best as he could—which wasn’t great, but it would do. He then skipped to the entry, arriving just in time to see his father, who was now dressed with Muggle trousers and a dark coat, levitating his trunk of school things down the staircase. His mother followed behind wearing a dark blue Muggle dress.

“Ready?” she asked. Scorpius nodded, starting to bounce with excitement and nerves. The front door opened itself, and the Malfoy family made their way out of the manor and into the fresh September morning air. At Scorpius’ insistence, they had arranged for the Knight Bus to pick them up and drive them to the front of King’s Cross Station.

After a short walk down to the end of the property, Scorpius’ mother struck out her wand, and a moment later, a purple triple-decker bus, the Knight Bus, came skidding to a halt in front of them. They boarded and were soon racing across the English countryside to London. Along the way, Scorpius cheered as obstacles leapt out of the path of the bus and the bus’ jolts sent passengers skidding around inside. His parents, meanwhile, spent the journey answering every question about Hogwarts Scorpius could think of—most of which he’d already asked a hundred times before.

 

"WOAH!" Scorpius said when the bus finally skidded to a halt in front of Kings Cross Station. Everywhere Scorpius could see, people were rushing to and fro, in and out of the station beneath its two huge arches. Between the arches, a clock tower reached up far above their heads, announcing that they had just twenty minutes left until Scorpius would hang out the window of the Hogwarts Express, waving goodbye to his parents and heading off to begin his own journey.

His parents each took one of his hands, his father grabbed one end of the trunk (which had conveniently acquired wheels on the way to London), and the three set off toward Platform 9 3/4, joining the bustling crowd of travellers. Little did Scorpius know, neither of his parents had ever come this way before, both of their families taking great pride in their complete isolation from the Muggle world. Walking through it, even if only for a few moments each year, was beneath the likes of their proud pureblood families, and they saw to it that the Ministry, contrary to regulations, always arranged them a Portkey directly to and from the platform.

Scorpius’ parents were both scanning the station for any sign of the platform when his father suddenly pointed to a patch of red hair heading straight toward the left side of the station: a Weasley. The Malfoys sped up to follow, and Scorpius stood up on the tips of his toes just in time to watch the family vanish into a barrier up ahead. He wriggled free of his parents’ hands and bolted off through the crowd toward the barrier.

“Scorpius!” he heard his parents call out, but he didn’t stop until he was right in front of the barrier. A moment later, he felt a hand on his shoulder and grinned up to see that his parents, both breathless, had caught back up with him.

“What do we do?” he asked.

“Walk through it,” his mother said with a nervous glance at her husband. At least she  thought that’s all you had to do. “Ready?” Scorpius nodded, and she grabbed his hand again. Together they walked straight toward the barrier, speeding up as they went. As they got closer, they started to run, and just when Scorpius felt a sudden wave of panic that they might crash into the solid wall, they found themselves on a train platform, thick with steam. Scorpius squinted through the steam and could just barely make out a scarlet red train: the Hogwarts Express.

“Mum! Look!” He pointed excitedly at the train and pulled her toward it, just as his father came through the barrier behind them.

"C'mon, Scorpius," his father said, "Let's get your things on the train." He took his son's hand and led him into the train, now levitating the trunk in front of them. Scorpius stared in awe at every little thing he could see. If it weren't for his father's hand gently pulling him along, Scorpius would have easily become so fascinated by some new detail that he forgot to keep moving at all. As it was, he hadn't even noticed that his father had already stowed the trunk in the luggage compartment and was caught off guard when he realised his father was trying to get him to jump back off the train.

“Scorpius!” A familiar voice shrieked happily. Standing next to Scorpius' mother was her sister, Aunt Daphne, who'd thrown her arms wide in the expectation of a hug, which Scorpius happily gave her. With her were her husband, Uncle Marcus, and Scorpius' cousin Artemis, who was already in her Hogwarts robes with a golden P proudly affixed to her chest: she'd just been made a Prefect of Slytherin House.

“Went the Muggle way, did you, Draco?” Uncle Marcus said, a slight sneer in his voice.

“Isn't it amazing?” Scorpius said, oblivious to the sneer. Artemis rolled her eyes.

“You say that about _everything_ , Scorp.”

“Be nice, Artemis,” Aunt Daphne scolded. “You need to look out for little Scorpius. He's _family_.”

“Yeah, anyone gives you trouble, Scorpius,” Uncle Marcus growled, smacking a hand down on Scorpius' shoulder, “You just tell your Uncle Marcus. No one messes with my nephew.” He made a shoved his large hand around in Scorpius’ hair, messing and knotting it.

“ _Dad_!” Artemis protested. She flipped her long black hair over her shoulder and crossed her arms. “I’m a _Prefect_. I can’t have my father threatening students!”

“Right, that’s your job.” Uncle Marcus smirked. He dropped his hand from Scorpius’ hair, and Scorpius’ father quietly brushed his son’s hair back into place.

“Scorpius, just come to me if you have problems, not my father. I can actually do something about it. Okay, Scorp?”

“Yeah, I will,” Scorpius said. “Thanks.”

“Anyway, Prefects have to get on the train early, so I have to go.” The six of them then exchanged a series of goodbyes, and then Artemis and her parents left the Malfoys on their own again. Scorpius’ mother turned to fuss over her son. Then Scorpius saw his father stiffen slightly and followed his gaze to see another family staring back at them. Scorpius thought he recognised the red-haired woman from his mother’s old quidditch photographs. The woman smiled kindly when she caught Scorpius staring at her, and Scorpius grinned back.

“Mum, isn’t that—”

“It’s rude to stare,” his father interrupted, turning away. Scorpius and his mother did so as well.

“We should say hello,” his mother said quietly. “To Ginny, I mean.”

His father glanced back at the family then back at Scorpius. After a moment, he said to his wife, “After. Let them say goodbye to their kids.” He knelt down next to Scorpius to talk to him at eye level. “And whatever you hear about that family, Scorpius, or anyone else’s family, I want you to promise me you’ll treat them all the same, okay?” Scorpius nodded. His father’s face grew solemn, and he glanced around, then took off his coat and rolled up his left sleeve. He took Scorpius’ hand and held it on the mark on his forearm: a skull with a snake coming from its mouth. Scorpius looked at his father seriously, who rarely let anyone, not even Scorpius, see the Dark Mark on his forearm. “This Mark is mine, not yours,” he told his son quietly. “Many of your schoolmates’ parents have marks of their own. Some are like mine, some are other kinds of marks and scars. But just like my Mark is not yours, just like you are not me, it doesn’t matter what your classmates’ parents did or didn’t do in the war. Do you understand that, Scorpius?”

“Yes, Dad.”

“Some of your schoolmates might treat you differently because you’re a Malfoy, because of who your father and my father are—or were. But you are not me, Scorpius. Don’t let the mistakes I made decide who you’re going to be or who to be friends with. You can be whoever you want to be, no matter who your father is, okay?” Scorpius nodded. His father let go of his hand and pulled his sleeve back down. Scorpius felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up at his mother. She smiled and knelt down too.

“Just work hard, and no one will be able to say you got somewhere just because of who your parents are.” Scorpius grinned back at her.

“Just like you did, right, Mum?” Both his parents laughed.

“I was told girls can’t play Quidditch, so I, er,  _enlightened_ them.” Scorpius giggled. “If you need any help enlightening anyone, just send us an owl.” Both of Scorpius’ parents stood back up.

“And keep an eye on your cousin,” his father said. “That girl’s always picking fights with someone, and that Prefect badge can’t block a well-aimed curse.”

“I will, Dad.”

His father glanced down at his watch. “It’s nearly eleven,” he said. “You better get on board.” All along the train, families were saying their last, hurried goodbyes. Some students were scrambling onto the train. Others were already hanging out windows, their families smiling and waving back. Scorpius gave his mother a tight hug.

“You’ll write me, won’t you?” Scorpius asked.

“Every day, if you want,” she said. Scorpius smiled at her and turned to his father, who bent over to hug him.

“What if I’m not in Slytherin?” Scorpius whispered into his father’s shoulder, one last, worried time.

“Then we’ll be proud to have someone from your house in the family,” his father said, still hugging Scorpius, “and your house, Slytherin or not, will be proud to have you.” He let go and smiled.

“And you’ll have so much more to tell us about!” his mother added. “House secrets and all.” Scorpius grinned. “Now go! You can’t get sorted if you miss the train!” She pushed him toward the train, and Scorpius bounded onboard. He hurried to a window to wave goodbye to his parents. The last doors of the train shut, and the train started to move. Scorpius watched his parents disappear as the train rounded a corner and began the journey to Hogwarts, leaving Kings Cross behind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's off to Hogwarts for young Scorpius! What house do you think he'll be in? Comment below and find out next week when chapter three is posted!
> 
> And a fun bit of trivia: the Muggle clothing Scorpius wears in this chapter is the uniform of Bishop Wordsworth's School, an all-boys, upper-class school in Wiltshire (the same county as the Malfoys) for 11-18-year-olds. Or something like that. This is their uniform though: http://www.bws-school.org.uk/Sports/Rugby/201415/U15/images/U15B.jpg


	3. Aboard the Hogwarts Express

As he stared out the window, Scorpius became aware of the sounds of talking and laughter in the compartment with him. He lowered himself from the window and turned around to see four students, all dressed in their Hogwarts robes already, talking animatedly. On Scorpius’ left a dark-skinned girl with bright green and blue braids was sitting with her arms folded, an amused expression on her face as she listened. Beside her, a lighter-skinned Black boy with tight, black curls and shaved sides sat with his feet up on the other bench, laughing at something Scorpius missed. Both of them had the red and gold highlights in their uniforms that Scorpius knew signified they were Gryffindors. Hogwarts uniforms, his father had explained, were enchanted to automatically display your house colours as soon as you were sorted into your house.

The Gryffindor boy kicked at the girl across from him playfully. She had dark, curly hair pulled back into a ponytail and tanned, olive skin, and she seemed to be doing her best to ignore him, casting quick side glances at him when she thought he wasn’t looking. The yellow and black of her robes told Scorpius she must be Hufflepuff. Beside her sat a boy who could only be her twin: though his skin was much paler, he had the same deep brown eyes, the same rounded nose, and was making the same stubborn attempt to ignore the Gryffindor boy. His robes, unlike his sister’s, had the blue and bronze of Ravenclaw, and as if to prove just how Ravenclaw he was, his left hand waved a thick book dangerously close to hitting Scorpius with each word he tried to emphasise.

“All I'm saying is,” the Ravenclaw boy said, his voice cracking on the last word. The Gryffindor boy snorted loudly, cutting the Ravenclaw off. With a sharp look at the other boy, the Ravenclaw boy brushed his long, dark curls out of his face and started over, more loudly this time: “All I’m saying is that if we could just figure out an alternative way to generate power—” Again, his voice cracked, and the other boy burst into laughter. This time, the two others also shot dark looks at the laughing boy. Scorpius made a small sound to announce his presence, as he thought it would be rude to just climb over the boy’s legs and leave.

“Oh, hey, kid,” the Gryffindor girl said. She looked at the boy blocking Scorpius’ path. “Uh, James, I think he wants through.” The Gryffindor, James, looked at Scorpius and crossed his arms.

“Password?” he asked, smirking.

“Maybe he wants to stay,” the other boy said. “First year?” he asked Scorpius. Scorpius nodded. “Nico,” the boy said, sticking out his hand. Scorpius took his hand and grinned.

“Scorpius.”

“And this is Columba—” he gestured to his twin sister beside him.

“It’s _Col_ ,” the Hufflepuff girl growled.

“Right. And that’s James,” he shot a dark look at the boy across from his sister, and “Roxanne,” the girl with braids waved back.

“Know anyone yet?” Col asked. She swatted James’ feet down, and her and her brother slid down the bench enough so Scorpius could sit. 

“Oh, thanks,” he said, sitting down. “Only my cousin, really, but she’s a Prefect. She said I’m not allowed in with the Prefects.” Roxanne and James exchanged an exasperated look.

“Our cousin Molly got made Prefect last year,” Roxanne said grimly.

“It was _awful_ ,” James said. “She’s always on my back. ‘James, stop trying to duel Sir Nicholas!’” he said in a mock shrill voice, “‘James, you can’t mail a Hogwarts toilet seat! James, James James!’ Can’t take a joke, that one. I hope your cousin isn’t so awful.”

“One time, she left me in Knockturn Alley,” Scorpius blurted out before he could catch himself. Their eyes widened.

“ _Knockturn Alley_??” James said, a mix of shock and awe in his voice. “What’s it like?” he leaned forward with an air of excitement about him that Scorpius didn’t understand.

“It was awful, what else? I was _eight_. Aunt Daphne told her not to let go of my hand, but she did, and she disappeared, and then I was alone in a dark, scary place with scary people and _Dark magic_ everywhere, and it was _awful_.” Scorpius suddenly clapped a hand to his mouth, as he realised what he’d just said. “Oh, I didn’t mean—My cousin isn’t—She’s really not that bad—It was just one time—and she—”

“One time my brother Fred tricked James into eating so many Puking Pastilles that Mum had to take him to St. Mungo’s to stop him puking,” Roxanne said, cutting Scorpius off. “Fred thought he could just give James all the cure halves after he’d eaten all of the puking ones, but he was puking so bad, he couldn’t eat anything.” 

“Yeah, and remember when Pa blew up your stuffed bear?” Col said to her brother. Nico laughed and tossed his head back.

“I cried and cried and cried over that bear,” Nico said, “but then Dad came home, saw what had happened, and just waved his wand and fixed it because Pa _always_ blows things up. That was when I knew magic was the coolest thing ever.”

“They have two Dads,” James explained.

“Oh, I only have one,” Scorpius said with a shrug. “He tried to teach me how to fly a broomstick, only my mum played professionally, so, well—”

“Who for?” James said excitedly, sitting up straight for the first time. “My mum played too: Harpies.” Scorpius gasped, and his face lit up.

“I know you!” Scorpius squealed excitedly, bouncing in his seat. “You’re ‘James, 2!’”

“I’m _what_?”

“‘James, 2!’” Scorpius repeated, as if the answer were obvious. “My mum has this picture of you and your mum and your brother I guess—Albus Sirius?” All four of them were watching Scorpius with intense interest now, and Scorpius started speaking so fast he was no longer breathing. “Anyway, your mum sent it when I was born, and it just says your names and ages and ‘See you at Kings Cross,’ and then we did, I saw your mum and she waved and it was so cool because I recognised her from the picture, but my parents didn’t want to say hi then because—well, I don’t really understand why, but I think it’s because my parents don’t want me to be friends with someone just because of who their parents are, but now we’re friends because I just walked into the right compartment and you were all really nice, so it’s okay and—”

“Okay, okay, slow down!” James said, grabbing the sides of his head and shutting his eyes. Scorpius stopped immediately and tried to catch his breath.

“How does your mum know James’ mum?” Roxanne asked calmly, casting a concerned glance at James.

“Oh,” Scorpius said, speaking at a normal pace again, “they played on the Harpies together. Ginny Weasley, right?”

“Yeah, that’s her,” James said. “Who’s your mum?”

“Astoria Ma—er, Greengrass when she played.” James screwed up his face in thought.

“I don’t really remember any of that stuff,” he said after a moment. “And my mum’s not really nostalgic about things anyway. But she is a dang good flyer.”

“Your mum is _totally_ nostalgic,” Roxanne said to James. “She’s always talking about her Quidditch days and showing Dad all her old quidditch albums. I bet she’s got a picture of baby Scorpius in there or something. She has photos of like all her old teammates’ kids.” She looked back at Scorpius. “The name sounds familiar—my dad and James’ mum are brother and sister, by the way—but I don’t really remember either.” 

“Just that my mum is the best chaser in the family by far, so getting her on your team is a key part of winning family matches.”

“Hey, my mum is a pretty good chaser too,” she said to James, then looked back at Scorpius. “She played for Gryffindor, just like my Dad.”

“And mine,” James said.

“And our Dad,” Nico added.

“And Mum and Mama,” Col reminded her brother.

“They have two mums, too,” James whispered loudly to Scorpius.

“I also only have one of those,” Scorpius said, and the others laughed good-naturedly. “Just one of everything, really. One mum, one dad, one aunt, one uncle—”

“One cousin?” Col offered.

“Two, actually. My aunt had a baby before she married my uncle. I don’t really know him though, so I guess that doesn’t count. One cousin!” Scorpius beamed.

“And no siblings?” Roxanne said.

James let out a whistle. “Including us, it’s twelve of us cousins, not to mention all the extended family.”

“Never a quiet moment in the Weasley-Potter clan,” Roxanne said.

“Have you _been_ to our house?” Col said, and then turned to Scorpius. “We’re the oldest, currently of seven, but our parents keep talking about adopting another kid, so _clearly_ it’s never-ending.”

“Our family versus your family,” James said. “Quidditch match. We’ll see whose family is better at Quidditch!”

“The adults in your family alone make up pretty much an entire Quidditch team,” Nico said, rolling his eyes. 

“Well, both my parents play, so maybe my family can team up with yours,” Scorpius said to the twins. 

“Deal!” Col said.

“Nope, not fair,” James said, laughing, “That’s too many last names to keep track of.”

“Yeah, imagine a quidditch match where all the players had different last names!” Roxanne said. “Totally unfathomable!”

And so the five of them went on laughing and talking about quidditch, their families, childhood mishaps, Hogwarts, and so much more as the English countryside slowly but surely gave way to the Scottish one and the sun fell in slow motion toward the horizon. At one point, a witch came by with a trolley full of sweets and foods, and they all bought themselves something to eat (“But don’t fill yourself up too much,” Roxanne had warned Scorpius. “The Start of Term Feast is huge!”). 

“You should probably go change into your robes soon, Scorpius,” Col said at last, as James caught the last chocolate frog, which had been hopping freely through the compartment for the last hour, and popped it in his mouth. 

“We’re definitely close now,” Roxanne agreed, looking out the window. Scorpius looked out as well and saw the dark hills of the Scottish Highlands, lit only by the fading orange glow of the setting sun. It wasn’t yet sunset, but the hills were blocking most of the light now, so Scorpius could only sort of make out the big things like lakes and trees. The light made the water look like it was on fire, Scorpius thought.

“Yeah, okay,” Scorpius said, pulling himself from window. He got up, but James again blocked his path by putting up his legs, this time on Col’s lap.

“Password?” he asked. 

“Get off me, you git,” Col said, trying but failing to shove James’ feet back down. Instead, he just put his feet on the bench beside her. 

“Alohomora,” Scorpius said, recalling the unlocking spell from his textbook. He’d spent much of the summer flipping through his books, pointing out things to his parents he thought sounded fun or useful, and asking them to show him how it worked. Scorpius had found endless entertainment in finding how many different things he could have his parents lock and unlock, even making a box out of things he found in a garden which his mother succeeded in locking magically.

“Definitely Ravenclaw,” Nico said without looking up from the book he’d been immersed in for the past hour. “Only a Ravenclaw would know that spell before even getting to Hogwarts.” They’d been debating which house Scorpius would be in, and each of them insisted Scorpius would be in their own house. Scorpius, whose anxiety over sorting had been steadily growing since he first got his letter, found himself for the first time not worried. Even if he wasn’t in Slytherin, he had _friends_.

It was with that cheerful thought that Scorpius walked out of the compartment (James had accepted Scorpius’ password and dropped his feet from the path), waved a quick goodbye to his new friends, and shut the door behind him. He was immediately presented with a major problem though: he hadn’t a clue where his father had put his trunk. Why hadn’t he paid attention when his father took him along to put it away? Why hadn’t he just changed into his uniform at Kings Cross?

Without any idea which way to go, he decided to set off to his left. The path was lit only along the ground by a soft, greenish light—much like glowing vomit, Scorpius thought, his stomach churning. As he walked, the slight bumping and lurching of the train began to make Scorpius dizzy, so he put his hands out on the walls to steady himself. 

After what felt like twenty minutes, the wall ended abruptly, and Scorpius’ hand lurched into darkness. He stumbled, crashing face-first into the something very much solid, and then fell backwards onto the floor. Scorpius just sat for a moment, waiting for the spinning feeling in his brain to subside. He then squinted up into the darkness and could just make out the outline of something he was sure was a trunk. Excited to have found one of the luggage compartments so quickly, he quickly climbed back up.

“I wish I could see,” he said to himself, and suddenly a blaze of golden light lit up the compartment. He was momentarily blinded but pleased nonetheless. Directly in front of him was an old, mahogany trunk with the initials R.E.C. written in peeling silver letters. Scorpius glanced at the ones above and below it, but didn’t recognise them either. The excitement he’d felt at finding the luggage compartment and at the light vanished as quickly as they’d come. He knew it was pointless, but he tried to see if he could lift one of the trunks. It hardly moved; he was too weak to lift it and didn’t know any spells. Then an idea occurred to him:

“I wish I had my trunk,” he said, hoping it would work again. Nothing happened. “I wish my trunk was at the front.” Nothing. He racked his brains for another way he could try his wish, then nearly laughed when he realised what he’d forgotten to say: “I wish for Scorpius Malfoy’s trunk!” R.E.C.’s trunk vanished, and Scorpius jumped back just in time for the train to spit his own trunk out onto the floor. 

It landed on his left foot, but Scorpius barely noticed the pain in his excitement. Wondering vaguely if all of the luggage compartments were connected, he wrenched open the trunk, yanked out his Hogwarts uniform, and found himself facing a new problem. “I wish I had a place to change?” he tried. Much to his surprise, it worked: on both sides of the hallway, the walls folded inward so that on both sides Scorpius was surrounded by solid wall. He pressed on one of the walls to see if it would swing back out, but it didn’t budge. “Magic is amazing,” he said to himself.

Convinced he had privacy, Scorpius started taking off his muggle clothing, which was much easier to do than putting it all on had been. He struggled for a few minutes trying to figure out how to undo the tie though before discovering that he could just pull it loose and then over his head. He was relieved to put on clothing he understood again: his white linens, black leggings, a black tunic over his head, a leather belt, and of course his black Hogwarts robes. His fingers fumbled awkwardly as he laced up his leather shoes, making a mental note to learn the spell his parents used as soon as he could so he wouldn’t have to fumble around with them again. 

“I wish I had a mirror,” he tried. Nothing happened—perhaps the train only knew a few obvious commands, he thought—so he just looked down at himself, hoping he’d managed to get everything on correctly on his own, threw the last of his things back into the trunk, and shut it again. “I wish this trunk was put away again,” he tried. Nothing. “I wish Scorpius Malfoy’s trunk was put away again.” Nothing. “Well, I at least wish I could get out of here!” he yelled at the train. The walls swung back again to reveal the hallway and its sickening green light. “Thanks, train,” he said. Unsure of what else to do, he tried lifting the trunk. 

After perhaps twenty minutes of struggling to put the trunk back (he’d managed to get it pushed to the side at least), he realised the train had been slowing. If they were stopping, it seemed pointless to put the trunk away, so he gave up and sat down on top of it.

_Friends_ , he thought to himself happily. _I have friends._ For most of his life, Scorpius’ world consisted only of his mother, father, aunt, uncle, cousin, and his four grandparents. When he was very little, Scorpius had played with other children, but too many trips to St. Mungo's left his parents fearful of the world they’d brought him into, so they kept Scorpius sheltered safe in their own home. His friends lived in books and in his head, in fantastical stories of heroism, friendship, and adventure. His friends were the nargles and crumple-horned snorkacks he imagined he saw in his house and garden. And now he had new friends who didn't live in books or imagination but at Hogwarts like him. 


	4. The Welcome Feast

The sound of doors opening and a flood of voices told Scorpius they must have arrived. Outside, a deep voice was shouting, "Firs' years! Firs’ years over here!" He looked up and saw that the halls of the train were now well-lit, with cheerful students streaming out through the doors. None came for their trunks, so Scorpius decided he was fine just leaving his now and joined the rush of students out of the train.

As soon as he exited, he heard a screech and was hit in the face by something light and flat. Claws dug into his shoulder, and he looked over to see a large eagle owl perched on his shoulder. On the ground, he saw an envelope—the thing that had hit him—and picked it up. _Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy, Hogwarts Express_ , the cover read. Scorpius recognised the sharp, cursive handwriting immediately, and tore it open.

_Dear Scorpius,_

_It has come to my attention that your father failed to purchase an owl for you. He insists that you may borrow a school owl at any time, but no grandson of mine should have to use those slow, filthy beasts, so I have taken the liberty of purchasing you one of the finest owls available myself. Your grandmother and I look forward to hearing all about your first day._

_Love,_

_Grandfather Lucius_

“Thank you,” Scorpius said to the owl, pocketing the note. He stroked its wing, and then it flew up and away towards the castle. 

“Firs’ years! Firs’ years over here!” This time, Scorpius found the owner of the voice: it was a huge man, far larger than any man Scorpius had ever seen, with a great shaggy beard. He was waving his hand over his head, as if he needed any help being noticed. Scorpius slid through the crowd of students toward him and the growing group of students surrounding him. The large man kept calling out for a few minutes, but soon the rush of students had slowed to a trickle. “C’mon, follow me!” he called, and then he turned and led the first years into the darkness down a steep, narrow path. 

A gasp rippled through the line of students as the path turned at the bottom of the slope. When the ripple hit Scorpius, he gasped too: the path had led them to the edge of a great lake with a glassy-smooth black surface. Perfectly reflected on the surface was a huge, glowing castle. Scorpius looked up and saw, for the first time, the Hogwarts castle, which sat atop a mountain on the other side of the lake. He had never felt so tiny.

"C'mon!" the huge man was calling. Scorpius tore his eyes from the castle and saw that the other first years were piling into small boats. He climbed into one of the boats behind a girl with long black hair. A moment later, all of the boats began smoothly gliding over the lake toward the castle. 

“ _Duck_!” the girl in front of Scorpius said, yanking him down by his robes, just a moment before he would have collided with the roof of the tunnel their boat was now gliding into. He spat as they passed through a curtain of ivy, trying to get it out of his gaping mouth. 

“Thanks,” he muttered into the darkness of the tunnel. Everything was silent as the boats glided along, seemingly right under the castle. After a few minutes, Scorpius heard students in the boats ahead clamouring out, and then the girl in front of him was impatiently tugging Scorpius out too. He slipped a bit on the pebbled shore, but soon their path became solid again, and they climbed up a dark passage, lit only by the distant light held aloft by the large man up ahead. 

Then, the passage turned to grass, and they looked up to see they were beside the castle now. A breeze blew, and Scorpius found himself thankful that they hadn’t needed to swim the lake or anything like that. They followed the large man up a flight of stone steps, and he knocked loudly on the door.

A moment later, the door swung open, revealing a blond-haired wizard in dark maroon robes. 

“Neville!” a boy screamed and ran forward to hug the wizard. Scorpius could just make out the boy’s dark, messy hair.

“ _Al_!” a girl’s voice said, irritably. “He’s a _professor_!” The blond wizard smiled down at the boy and then at the students.

“The firs’ years, Professor Longbottom,” the large man said, chuckling.

“Thank you, Hagrid,” Professor Longbottom said. “I’ll take them now.” He nodded politely, and the large man turned to leave. Scorpius noticed he was smiling. “Right this way!” Professor Longbottom said as he opened the door the rest of the rest of the way. The students, Scorpius included, gasped. 

Inside was an entry hall so huge Scorpius thought it might even be bigger than his house, and even he knew his house was big. Torches lit the stone walls, and the massive marble staircase seemed to call the students to explore the vast castle. Professor Longbottom didn’t lead them up the staircase though. Instead, he led them to the side, past a pair of doors that were crackling with the muffled sound of hundreds of voices, and into a small chamber.

“Welcome to Hogwarts,” he said once they had all squeezed into the tiny space. “The Start-of-Term Feast will begin shortly, but you all must first be sorted into your houses. The Sorting Ceremony is an important tradition here at Hogwarts, but don’t worry, it’s very easy, and you have nothing to worry about.” He smiled kindly at the students, many of whom were glancing around nervously.

“While you are here,” he continued, “your house will be like your family. You will take classes with your house, sleep in your house dormitories, play for your house team if you choose to play quidditch, and spend much of your free time in your house common rooms.

“Each house competes for the House Cup every year. Your choices here can earn or lose your house points, so do your best to represent your house with honour. The four houses are Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Slytherin, and Hufflepuff. They have all produced many great witches and wizards, so be proud of your house, and I hope each of you will make your house proud as well.

“The Sorting Ceremony will begin soon. Please wait here, and I will bring all of you in when we are ready to begin.” The students parted to let him through, and then a buzz of whispering erupted in the room. Everyone was debating what the Sorting Ceremony actually was and which house they were going to be in.

“What are those houses?” the girl who’d been in the boat with him asked Scorpius worriedly. “What’d he say they were called again?”

“Slytherin, Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff,” Scorpius said.

“Sly—what? Can you say them slowly?” Scorpius named the houses again, and she repeated the names back to him slowly, as if knowing the words would help her through the Sorting Ceremony. Part way through their fourth run-through of the houses, Professor Longbottom returned.

“Follow me!” He called. “Please, in a line.” The students began to move, and Scorpius tried to follow but seemed to be going nowhere. He looked down at his legs to see that they were, in fact, not moving. 

“Come _on_!” The girl hissed, yanking Scorpius into the line in front of her. He stumbled along as they went back out into the hall and through the crackling doors into the Great Hall. Inside, thousands of candles hovered in the air over five long tables: four full of students, and one at the far end of the hall, perpendicular to the other tables, where all of the teachers sat, looking out at the students. Professor Longbottom led them to the front, directly in front of the teachers.

“Look!” Scorpius heard a kid in front of him say, pointing up at the ceiling. Scorpius looked up and saw, instead of a ceiling, the night sky, dotted with stars. Or he thought it was the sky, at least, but remembered seeing roofs on the castle, so it had to be some kind of enchantment. He glanced back down, and there was now an old, frayed hat sitting on a stool at the front of the line that everyone seemed to be staring at. The sight of it made Scorpius’ heart race—was that it? Was that how they’d be sorted? 

Scorpius looked back up at the ceiling, trying to block out the panic that was starting to take over him. Something was singing, but Scorpius blocked it out, focusing on the stars, which he found calming. His father had often laid with him in the grass in their backyard, pointing out the constellations and explaining their meanings. Scorpius tried to find the ones he knew. The one he’d been named for, Scorpius, was best seen in the summer, around July, but he found part of it on the edge of the ceiling, not far from the horizon. It was a family tradition to use the names of constellations when naming their children, _just like being in Slytherin_ , Scorpius thought. At the heart of the constellation was a reddish star, Antares, Scorpius remembered, and he wondered what it’d be like to be all the way up there, among the stars. 

Distantly, Scorpius heard applause, but he ignored it. Whatever he had to do, he didn’t want to know until the very last moment. He was vaguely aware that some of the other students had started to move, but he decided the girl behind him would get him to move if he was supposed to. His eyes found Altair, the brightest star in the constellation Aquila. That constellation, Scorpius’ dad had told him, was an eagle, and if Scorpius squinted just enough, he could see it.

“That’s me!” the girl whispered. Scorpius glanced back down. Professor Longbottom was standing at the front, holding the frayed hat in one hand and his wand in the other. Written in large, glittering gold letters at the front of the room, Scorpius read, “Delacruz, Jessica.” “Wish me luck!” the girl said.

“Good luck!” Scorpius whispered as she brushed past him. When she reached the front, she sat down on the stool, and Professor Longbottom placed the hat onto her head. It fell over her eyes, and Scorpius tried to see what it was doing. The hat had a face, Scorpius realised, and noticed it seemed to be thinking. Then, suddenly—

“HUFFLEPUFF!” the hat shouted. The table on the far right erupted in cheers. Scorpius looked over and saw Col among the cheering Hufflepuffs. The girl, Jessica, hurried over to join them as yellow highlights appeared in her robes. Professor Longbottom waved his wand, and the gold letters twisted and reformed into a new name. Scorpius looked back up as Professor Longbottom called out the name that had appeared. Another student walked forward, and Scorpius’s eyes wandered from Aquila to Pegasus. The winged horse, his dad had told him, was the steed of the great Greek hero Bellerophon, who once slayed many monstrous beasts. 

Scorpius glanced down quickly and saw they were getting close to his name. He stared back up at the stars, keeping his mind too busy to worry. The body of Pegasus was a square of stars, known as the Square of Pegasus, and Scorpius’ gaze wandered above the Square and found Andromeda. Some nights, when there was no moon in the sky, Scorpius had seen a whole dazzle of colour like a distant world there with Andromeda.

“Malfoy, Scorpius!” he heard Professor Longbottom call, though his voice sounded far away. Scorpius kept staring at the ceiling, not quite aware that his name had been called, lost in thoughts of stars. “Malfoy, Scorpius!” Professor Longbottom called again. This time, Scorpius looked down again and saw his name shining in front of the whole school. He looked around nervously. There were whispers rippling through the students. Not sure he’d be able to make the walk all the way to the front, Scorpius decided to sprint. He flung himself down on the stool and yanked the hat down hard over his head when Professor Longbottom tried to place it on his head. The moment the hat touched his head, it shouted,

“SLY—”

And then, to Scorpius’ great horror, it stopped, and a quiet voice that he recognised as the hat’s began speaking in his head. “Oh, no,” it said, amused. “Oh, _this_ is interesting.”

“Please,” Scorpius whispered, hoping only for it to be over. He could feel the eyes of the whole school on him, burning through the hat to stare at him.

“For centuries, generation after generation, I’ve sat on the heads of young Malfoys like yourself, and always the same, always the same Slytherin thoughts, always the same arrogance and always the same clear self-assurance that they are Slytherin. Easiest students to sort.”

“ _Please_ ,” Scorpius pleaded again, now thinking desperately of the fights his parents would have with the rest of his family if they found out the hat had doubted Scorpius. “Please, my parents—”

“You, boy, are a true Malfoy.” Scorpius’ heart leapt. “Every Malfoy I’ve ever sorted has been simple. Some students are difficult to sort because they’re not sure who they are, and they’ve got enough in them that they could go in more than one house, but not Malfoys. No, Malfoys, even when they’ve got qualities of other houses, always belong in one house. You’re most certainly a Malfoy, and you can tell your family that. So sorry about this kid, but—” Then, the hat shouted:

“HUFFLEPUFF!”

Scorpius froze. The hat was pulled from his head, and he stared wide-eyed at all the students staring back at him. Something was pressing against his chest; he couldn’t breathe. He could hear loud voices, but he couldn’t figure out where the sound was coming from. “Blood traitor!” he heard someone yell amongst the din of voices, followed by laughter. He needed to move, but his chest was getting tighter and tighter, and he thought he’d collapse if he tried to stand. Someone was coming toward him.

“Scorpius!” they said. When Scorpius didn’t respond, the person pulled up at his armpits, making him stand, and threw one of Scorpius’ arms over their shoulder. Someone else ran over and grabbed his other arm. Together, the two people led Scorpius to a table and sat him down. Someone at the table pointed an arm—no, a wand, Scorpius thought—at them, and the noise of the hall faded to silence.

“Scorpius, are you okay?” the first person said. He looked up and saw to his relief that it was Col. Some of the pressure on his chest relaxed, and he gasped in some air.

“My chest,” he said weakly. He looked over at the other person who had helped him, and felt his face flush when he saw it was Jessica. Again. 

“Just breathe,” Col said. “You’re okay.”

“My parents—”

“Breathe first. Worry later. Okay?” Scorpius nodded. 

“Inhale—” Jessica said and mimed taking a deep breath. Col did the same, and Scorpius tried his best. “Exhale.” They all let out their breath. The pain in his chest started to subside as Jessica led them through more and more cycles of breathing. 

“Hey, Al’s getting sorted,” Col said. Scorpius looked to the front of the room and saw “Potter, Albus” glowing at the front while a boy who looked much like James, except with longer, messier hair and darker skin, sat down on the stool. In silence, Scorpius watched the hat think, then saw its mouth open suddenly, but no sound came out. Professor Longbottom pulled the hat from Albus’ head, and Scorpius saw the blue and bronze highlights appear on the his robes. He looked around the room and saw students at what seemed to be the Ravenclaw table standing up and cheering, but he couldn’t hear anything.

“What’s going on? Where’d the sound go?” Scorpius asked, feeling his panic returning. He saw Nico stick his tongue out toward the Gryffindor table.

“It’s just a spell,” Jessica said quickly. Scorpius’ eyes found James, whose face was pale with shock, though he seemed to be trying to cheer despite his shock.

“Blocks out the sound around us,” Col said.

“And it’ll come back?” Scorpius asked. 

“Yeah, whenever you’d like.” Scorpius took a deep breath, calming himself back down. “Did you want to hear everything again?”

“Can I wait until after the sorting?” 

“Sure,” she said. 

“I'm Jessica, by the way,” the other girl said. “Jessica Dela Cruz.”

“Scorpius Malfoy,” he said. “Thanks for... you know…”

“Don’t worry about it. My dad's a nurse. Panic attacks are pretty common, just have to remember to breathe.”

“Panic—wait, what?”

“Panic attack. I don't know what wizards call it. It's just when you get really freaked out and can't breathe and stuff.”

“Muggles have a word for that? I don't think wizards do. I mean, we have these things called boggarts that take the shape of something really scary, so they make people freak out really bad, but they're only in really old houses and stuff.”

“ _Really_? What kind of scary shape?”

“I've never seen one, but I think they can be anything. My mum said she saw one, and it was a broken Firebolt 360, but I think she was just messing with me.”

“What's a Firebolt 360?”

“One of the fastest broomsticks in the world. They’re really expensive.”

“Oh, is your mum super neat? My dad _hates_ dirt.”

“What?”

“Broomsticks.” They stared at each other, both confused. “Wait, wizards don’t really _fly_ on broomsticks, do they?” She laughed.

“Of course we do!”

“Do you also ride on magic carpets then?”

“What? No, of course not. That’s illegal!”

“Brooms are okay but magic carpets are not. Got it.” She laughed, then said seriously, “I have _so_ much to learn.” 

“Are your parents muggles?”

“Yeah, never heard of Hogwarts until the day I got my letter. I thought it was just some prank from kids at school until Professor Longbottom showed up at my house and started doing magic to prove it’s real.”

“What’d he do?”

“He—” Scorpius was suddenly cut off by a string of curse words from Col. Scorpius and Jessica turned and watched a girl with bushy red hair walk from the stool to the Slytherin table at the far end of the room, where only a handful of students were clapping. Most just stared, mouths open. The girl ignored them, holding her head up in the same, stubborn way Scorpius’ dad often did. 

“What?” Jessica asked.

“That’s Rose Weasley,” Col said. Scorpius looked at the Gryffindor table and found James and Roxanne having a worried discussion, occasionally giving an overly-enthusiastic thumbs up to their cousin at the Slytherin table.

“ _Who_? Is she famous?” Col shook her head but didn’t say anything. “Do you know who she is, Scorpius?”

“Col’s friends’ little cousin, I think.”

“Oh. Is Slytherin bad?” Col let out an exasperated laugh and turned back toward their own table.

“My family have all been in Slytherin,” Scorpius said.

“Oh, is _that_ why you had a panic attack? Is her family not in Slytherin? It’s just a big deal to not be in the same house as your family or something like that?”

“Sort of,” Col said. “It’s... hard to explain.” Jessica looked at Col as if waiting for her to explain, but Col just put her head in her hands and shut her eyes, so everything stayed silent. Scorpius used the opportunity to look at the long Hufflepuff table. All along the table were golden plates, goblets, and various other dishware, though there was no food in sight. Scorpius’ stomach growled. He looked at the faces of his new fellow housemates. Most of them were looking attentively toward the front, though a few, especially the older students, were whispering to each other with varying levels of disinterest in whatever was going on up ahead. 

Across from them, a boy who Scorpius guessed was only a few years older than him was quickly writing on a sheet of parchment, his eyes fixed ahead. Scorpius watched, mesmerised by how quickly the boy was writing without getting ink everywhere. A smile crept across the boy's face, but his gaze stayed fixed and his hand stayed writing for a few more minutes. Then he suddenly ripped off a piece of parchment and handed it to Scorpius as the students around them started silently clapping. Scorpius read the note:

_I put the charm up to block the sound. Just give me a thumbs up if and when you’d like me to reverse the spell. And welcome to Hufflepuff! :)_

“Hungry?” Col said, lifting a biscuit in front of Scorpius’ face. He gasped and saw that the table had filled with all kinds of food, only about half of which he even recognised. Judging by how quickly students all around were shovelling food onto their plates, Scorpius suspected he wasn’t the only hungry one. He looked back at the boy who gave him the note, and when he caught his eye, Scorpius gave him a thumbs up to signal he was ready for noise again. The boy smiled and waved his wand, and then the sounds of the Great Hall slowly returned.

“Welcome to Hufflepuff!” The boy said to Scorpius and Jessica. A few other students nearby echoed the welcome. “Feeling better?” The boy asked Scorpius.

“Yeah,” Scorpius said, piling a couple of his favourite dishes onto his plate, “Lots better. Thanks.”

“Thanks for helping, Jessica,” he said to her. “I’m Aarav, by the way,” he told Scorpius. “Fourth year.”

“Scorpius.” Scorpius smiled, and the boy smiled back. 

The rest of the feast passed quickly. Scorpius stuffed himself full of food only to discover that dinner was followed by just as many endless dessert options, and still somehow managed to squeeze in a bit more. Jessica had asked him an endless series of questions about the wizarding world, and he had in turn asked her all sorts of questions about the muggle world and how muggles managed to get on without magic. Finally, the last of the desserts disappeared, and everyone began to leave the Hall. 

“Scorpius, Jessica, stick with Col,” Aarav said as they stood up. “I’m staying until everyone else leaves to make sure no one falls behind.”

“Don’t worry,” Col said. “I’ve got them.” They then joined the current of Hufflepuffs all off to their dorms. Eventually, they found a few barrels against a wall, and Scorpius watched as students ahead one by one tapped the middle barrel before the portrait swung open to reveal a doorway.

“First years?” A girl with a shining Prefect badge asked when they’d made their way to the front. Scorpius and Jessica nodded. “One at a time so you know you can do it. Just tap the middle barrel with your wand to the rhythm of Helga Hufflepuff, like this.” She clapped her hands together as she said "Helga Hufflepuff" again. Jessica glanced at Scorpius then stepped forward. She reached out and tapped the barrel with her wand, and then it swung open. After it had closed again, Scorpius did the same, feeling a bit silly tapping a beat on a barrel, and stepped through when it opened. The path sloped downward until reaching an open door, and Scorpius walked through.

Inside, the room was lit by a warm glow, with black and gold furnishings everywhere. There were sofas and cushions and a crackling fire, and a group of first years had begun to gather on one side of the room. Jessica waved him over. Another Prefect was standing with them, eyes glue to the entrance as the rest of the students streamed in. At last, Scorpius saw Aarav, the Prefect from outside, and a couple other older students he didn’t recognise all walk in. The Prefect from outside gave a thumbs up as she passed, and then the Prefect standing with them turned to face them.

“Welcome to Hufflepuff!” she said. “Before I send all of you off to your dormitories, just a few quick bits of information. First, breakfast is at eight tomorrow morning. You can sleep in if you need to, but you need to be here in the common room at nine thirty for a very important Hufflepuff tradition. I promise it’s nothing you need to worry about or prepare for, just be back here by nine thirty tomorrow morning. Okay?” The first years nodded and murmured agreement.

“Second, I know most of you are probably dying to write to your families. A Prefect will be taking letters to the owlery just before curfew, so just come down here and leave them with one of us, and we’ll make sure your letters get out tonight. We can show you where the owlery is tomorrow.

“And that’s about it, actually. If you’ll just follow me then.” She led them down a hall which opened up to a landing area at the base of a spiral staircase. At the top of the stairs, she pointed to a door on the left. “Girls, you’re in there. Boys,” she pointed to a door on the right, “You’re in there.” She looked sternly at them all and pointed to some cushions that were against the wall between the doors. “You’ll notice that there’s this nice seating area just outside your rooms. Boys, stay out of the girls’ dormitories. Girls, stay out of the boys’. You can intermingle with each other just outside if you don’t want to go down to the common room. Understood?” The first years nodded. “Good. Now, your things have already been brought up, so I suggest you get some rest, and if you’re sending a letter, bring it back down as soon as you can. Goodnight!” 

As soon as Scorpius found his trunk at the foot of one of the beds, he opened it, dug out some parchment, his quill, and some ink, and began writing letters to his family. To his parents, he wrote a long letter telling them all about the day he’d had, the friends he'd made, the stars he'd found in the ceiling, the way he'd had to tickle a portrait to get into his dorm, and just how nice everyone had been. He also wrote letters to all of his grandparents and Aunt Daphne and Uncle Marcus, telling them about all the things he'd already learned and making sure to thank Grandfather Malfoy for the owl. He didn't mentioned he'd been put in Hufflepuff though or write about any of his new friends. There was no reason to risk upsetting them. 

After Scorpius had finished and run his letters down to a Prefect, he returned to his dormitory and fell asleep almost immediately, dreaming of distant constellations.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Neville Longbottom after the sorting, probably: https://31.media.tumblr.com/82b3a7ccfc0359b18110c29470e91c84/tumblr_inline_mhbljhJUmp1qz4rgp.gif
> 
> Feel free to share your own reactions gifs in the comments of how the other adults might be responding to the sorting!


	5. A Family Emergency

“Oh, bloody hell,” Draco yelled from his study. “I told him Scorpius didn’t need an owl!” Astoria rubbed her eyes; it was the middle of the night.

“Has Scorpius’ letter arrived then, dear?” she called out. She heard his chair scrape against the hardwood floor, followed by footsteps. A moment later, her husband walked into the room with a letter in hand and laid down beside her on their bed. She snatched the letter and tore it open. Draco leaned in closer so he could read and put his arm over her shoulder. Then they sat in silence, reading the long letter. When she was done reading, she looked at Draco. He stared back, brow creased with worry. 

“Hufflepuff,” she said quietly after a moment. They sat in silence again, the weight of the word hanging between them. She watched Draco’s grey eyes flick back to the letter, scanning back and forth as he reread their son’s words. He looked back at her. He looked at the letter. Over and over, trying to accept what they’d spent years trying to prepare for. At last, he sighed.

“He’ll be safer there,” he said. Astoria knew this was easier for her. Even at Hogwarts, before the war, she’d made friends in other houses. Not close friends, but there were only so many girls who would sneak out of the castle at night to play quidditch in a secret league, so she couldn’t limit herself to Slytherins. And when she’d finished Hogwarts and joined the Harpies, Hogwarts house no longer mattered at all. 

Draco, on the other hand, had never gotten on with students in other houses, let alone been friends. He’d hated them all as a boy and thought himself superior. Astoria could still remember him going on and on in the Slytherin common room about how the other houses might as well just be kicked out entirely. He was never alone in those arguments. He’d changed since then though. He’d gone out with Astoria, her teammates, and her teammates’ dates, and he’d gotten on with most of them okay. He’d even become somewhat of friends with Maureen, Beater Olwyn Griffiths’ girlfriend who’d been in Ravenclaw, but it was years now since they’d talked. 

“He’s made friends,” Astoria said. Draco smiled slightly. 

“With Potter,” he muttered. Astoria laughed and laid her head on his shoulder.

“Looks like we got what we asked for.” 

Just then, someone yelled from elsewhere in the house: “Draco!” Astoria felt her husband’s jaw clench. It was Lucius, his father, sounding unusually calm, if not impatient.

“Well, I think that confirms that Scorpius did _not_ tell them about his sorting,” Draco said. He took a deep breath then got back up. 

“No footsteps, so at least it’s only his head,” she said. Draco rolled his eyes. “Be there in a minute.” He left the room, and Astoria quickly changed into some robes and then hurried off to the living room as well. 

“You went behind my back, Father!” She heard Draco say as she entered. Lucius Malfoy’s head, which was currently floating in the fireplace, scoffed.

“The boy needs an owl!” Lucius spat back. “If I hadn’t—” He was cut off by the sudden appearance of another head in the fireplace: Ismene Greengrass, Astoria’s mother.

“There you are, Astoria!” she said, with an annoyance in her voice as if she’d been searching all over for her. “Oh, hello, Lucius, sorry to barge in on your fire like this.”

“It’s our fire, Mother,” Astoria said. “You’re both barging in.”

“Well, I’ve come because I’ve just received little Scorpius’ letter. I’m amazed he even managed to write, of course. That boy can’t even put his shoes on without me doing it for him.” Astoria felt her blood begin to boil. She and her mother didn’t get on well. “Anyway, that scatterbrained son of yours forgot—” She was cut off by the sudden appearance of Daphne’s head in the fire between Lucius’ and Ismene’s. 

“Hufflepuff!?” she blurted with a laugh. “I knew Scorpius was a bit funny, but Hufflepuff! Can you believe it?” Lucius’ and Ismene’s eyes widened in horror. Lucius’ head suddenly disappeared.

“Well, where’s he off to?” Ismene said indignantly. “This is a family emergency!” The knock on the door a moment later answered. Draco swore under his breath.

“Draco!” Lucius’ voice yelled impatiently from outside. “Open the door!” Draco glanced at Astoria, his face stony, then swept from the room.

“Meeting there then?” Astoria’s mother said. “Right, I’ll go get your father.” Then her head vanished as well.

“They didn’t know, did they?” Daphne said guiltily. Astoria glared in response. “Sorry. Right. So I will just leave and let you deal with this.” 

“No, you still owe me after Apollo,” Astoria said. Daphne sighed in resignation. “And don’t bring Marcus.”

“All right, all right.” Her head vanished along with the fire. A moment later, the fireplace erupted in green flames and Daphne walked out of it just as Draco returned with his parents, all three of them looking tense. Daphne sat down on one of the large chairs beside the fire, and Lucius and Narcissa took seats on the dark, emerald sofa. Astoria leaned against the mantel opposite Daphne, and Draco stood beside her.

“I’ll speak with the Headmaster in the morning,” Lucius said coolly. 

“Headmistress,” Astoria corrected. 

“Right,” he said sharply. “I’ll speak with the _Headmistress_ and have her move Scorpius to Slytherin. Problem solved.”

“That’s not your decision to make.”

“I think we should wait for Ismene and Aeson,” Narcissa said stiffly. “They are coming, are they not?” 

“Yes.” Astoria said. Silence filled the air. 

“How’s Marcus?” Narcissa asked Daphne after a moment, trying to break the silence.

“Asleep,” Daphne said. Silence again. Lucius’ face seemed to be changing colours with pent up fury. Narcissa put a hand on his leg to calm him. 

Finally, the fireplace erupted in green flames, and Astoria’s mother walked out. Her father, Aeson, followed right after in his own burst of flames. 

“Sit,” Astoria said firmly. Her mother sat on the sofa with the Malfoys and her father took the chair beside her, just next to Astoria and Draco.

“Well, I’ve already sent a letter to the school,” Ismene said, “so it’ll all get sorted, and Scorpius will be in Slytherin where he belongs. Just a little mix up.” 

“A woman after my own heart,” Lucius said, a malicious grin on his face.

“Fortunately, you are not Scorpius’ mother,” Astoria said. “I am, and I will be sure to notify the school that I do not wish for my son to be moved anywhere unless he asks to be.”

“The boy is eleven!” Lucius cried. “You expect an eleven-year-old to know what’s best for himself?”

“Scorpius didn’t choose Hufflepuff; the Hat did,” Draco said quietly. Lucius’ lip twitched, a sign that he was nearing his breaking point. Astoria did a quick mental check: her wand was in her hip holster in case she needed it.

“Well, it’s clearly made a mistake!” Astoria’s mother protested. 

“If you’re in my home to debate what house you think my son belongs in, get out now,” Astoria said. “Scorpius is in Hufflepuff. That’s final.”

“Well, perhaps it’s only fitting then.” Her mother raised her eyebrows and looked away.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You haven’t exactly raised the boy to be, ah—” Lucius began.

“Are you criticising my parenting?” Draco snapped.

“Well, if I had raised him—”

“Then he’d be dead. Need I remind you that you set my son on fire?” 

“The boy is _fine_.”

“It was an accident, Draco,” Narcissa said. “Your father didn’t mean—”

“I don’t care what anyone meant,” Astoria spat. “I don’t want to talk about it. Draco and I are his parents. Nobody else. Are we clear?”

“Astoria, dear,” her mother said, “you have to think of what’s best for the boy. Being in Hufflepuff, he’ll be exposed to certain . . . _influences_.”

“Say the word, Mother.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Well, I don’t know what you’re talking about then either.” She crossed her arms. Draco placed his hand on her back gently.

“You know perfectly well what I—”

“Mudbloods,” Astoria’s father said flatly. “She’s saying Hufflepuff is full of mudbloods.” Astoria arched an eyebrow at her mother, who squirmed uncomfortably. 

“Well, yes, and think about his future!” her mother cried. “What sort of job do you think he’ll get graduating from Hufflepuff of all houses!?”

“Well, the Headmistress is a Hufflepuff,” Astoria said. “I’d say that’s a pretty good job.”

“That’s one exception!”

“Quite a few Ministers for Magic have been Hufflepuff,” Draco added. Astoria was impressed he even knew that.

“Plenty of famous quidditch players,” Astoria said.

“Writers.”

“Healers.”

“Yes, but this is _Scorpius_ , dear!” her mother protested. “The boy is—” she gestured vaguely, “—you know—” Astoria glared, waiting.

“I think what Mother is trying to say is he’s just too soft for his own good,” Daphne said.

“The boy won’t be Minister for Magic or anything of the sort when his head’s always in the clouds,” Lucius said. 

“His head’s not anywhere, if you ask me,” Astoria’s father asserted. Draco squeezed her shoulder before she could get out a retort, and she took a deep breath.

“Look,” Astoria said, “there are only two options here. Scorpius is in Hufflepuff, and he’s going to have Muggle-born friends. That’s beyond our control, and even if I could, I wouldn’t stop that. I want my son to be happy and to feel welcome at home. So your options are either you support Scorpius, his house, and whoever his friends are, regardless of their blood status, or get out of my house and stay away from my son.” Astoria shot her sister a dark look, and Daphne put her hands up.

“Okay,” Daphne said, “my nephew is a Hufflepuff. Got it. Go, Scorpius!” She waved an imaginary flag in support. 

“Draco?” Lucius said slowly, his voice like ice.

“I’m with Astoria one hundred percent,” Draco said. Astoria heard the shaking in his voice and reached up to squeeze his hand. Draco was not one to stand up to anyone, especially not his own father. Another tense silence filled the room, and Astoria glanced around the room. Narcissa looked almost sympathetic, Astoria thought, but she knew she’d never stand up to Lucius, who clearly disagreed. Next to her, Draco looked brave. Astoria’s father had his usual look of calm yet fierce disapproval, and her mother was shifting uncomfortably, avoiding eye contact. 

“What, Mother?” Astoria asked irritably. Her mother huffed loudly but said nothing. “Daphne, Dad, don’t say anything for her.” Her mother gave her a nasty look. “Oh, come on, just say it mother.” They stared each other down until her mother finally broke.

“If that boy—”

“His name is Scorpius.”

“Fine, if _Scorpius_ is going to be off singing and dancing and holding hands with _those sorts_ , then, well, he is not my grandson!” Astoria only glared back at her mother, who stood up suddenly, pointing her wand at Astoria. “Just because you’ve turned into some _filthy Muggle-loving, blood traitor_ —”

“Mother!” Daphne gasped. Lucius Malfoy stood up now too, pulling Narcissa up with him.

“Draco, we will discuss this later,” he said sharply before sweeping angrily out of the room. Narcissa smiled weakly at Draco and Astoria as she followed. A moment later, they heard the front door slam. Astoria’s father stood up and held out his hand.

“Good to see you, Draco,” he said, shaking Draco’s hand as if nothing had happened. Then he grabbed a handful of Floo powder, and vanished into the fireplace.

“I think you’ve made yourself quite clear,” Astoria’s mother said. “When you’ve changed your mind, let me know. I should like to see my grandson whenever you’re over all this Muggle-loving nonsense.” Then, without another word, she grabbed a fistful of Floo and vanished after her husband. 

“Anything you want me to say to Artemis?” Daphne said as Draco and Astoria sat down on the sofa.

“Yeah,” Astoria said, “tell her I’m going to kick her arse next time I see her because I’m willing to bet Scorpius didn’t say anything about his sorting to you.” 

“Nope,” she laughed, “just a sweet letter saying he’d had a nice day and made some friends. You know, Artemis has never written me a sweet letter, just regular letters. Not that I wish she would, but the Hat’s probably right. Scorpius is different.” She stood up and grabbed a handful of Floo powder. “I’ll remind Artemis to play nice with Scorpius. Not sure I agree with you, but what’s family for if not grudging acceptance and arguments about quidditch? Falcons are rubbish, Draco.” Before he could respond, she vanished into the fireplace.

“Do you believe her?” Draco asked incredulously. “Falcons are the best in the league.” Astoria arched an eyebrow at him. “All right, after the Harpies then.” They both laughed. Then Draco sighed. “Why couldn’t we have had a child who belonged in Slytherin?”

“Scorpius—”

“I know. That’s why I said belonged in. I know Scorpius doesn’t belong there. I just have no clue how to raise a Hufflepuff. Think they’ve books on that?”

“I don’t know, but I’m going to Diagon Alley in the morning to find out,” Astoria said as she stood back up. “I’m going to write back to Scorpius and get some sleep. You should too.” Draco nodded.

“Of all the bloody train compartments, he sits in the one with Potter.” He put his head in his hands. 

“You’re the one who told him it doesn’t matter who someone’s father is.”

“I know.” He looked back up at her. “Don’t say a thing about it to him. I’m fine with it.” Astoria raised her eyebrows. “Really, I am. Or I will be. It was just one train ride. It’s not like they’ll be best mates now.”

“Of course not,” she said and left the living room.


	6. Breakfast

“Never heard of Hogwarts until the day I got my letter,” Justin, a boy from Scorpius' dorm, was saying as they walked through the first floor corridor to breakfast. “Both my parents are muggles, and I was down for Eton, so I of _course_ said I didn’t want to go to some school I’d never even heard of.”

“What’s Eton?” Scorpius and Omar, another boy from their dorm, asked at the same time.

“ _What’s Eton_? Only the best school in the world! Lots of Prime Ministers go there, and if you go you’re pretty much guaranteed a spot at Oxford or Cambridge.”

“And those are—?” 

“The best universities. Muggle universities, I mean.” When it became apparent that neither Scorpius nor Omar knew anything about muggle universities either, Justin began a long, in-depth explanation about them that Scorpius suspected would have lasted the entire trip down to breakfast and more, had Justin’s monologue not been interrupted by a group of first year Ravenclaws.

“Hey, Hufflepuffs!” one of them called, jogging down a staircase toward them. “You lot are supposed to be fair and stuff, right?” She’d caught up with them, and the other first years hurried to catch up. Scorpius recognised James’ little brother Albus among them. A dark-haired girl got caught in a vanishing step, but the others didn’t seem to notice. “Settle this debate for us. I think that theoretically if you had a broomstick that could go fast enough, you could go back in time just by flying in the opposite direction of the Sun.”

“That makes no sense,” Justin said, crossing his arms as they continued toward the marble staircase that led to the main hall. “You can’t go back in time. That only works in sci-fi movies.”

“What’s a sci-fi movie?” one of the Ravenclaws asked.

“Science fiction. Like space travel and aliens and _Star Wars_.” After seeing the confused looks on most of their faces, Justin threw his arms up and said exasperatedly, “Does everyone here really know nothing about the world outside of here?” 

“I think my cousins made us watch _Star Wars_ once,” Albus said quietly. “It’s just a muggle story, like _Babbity Rabbity_ , but for older kids. They fight with magic swords or something like that.”

“Which ones did you watch?” Justin asked excitedly, moving over to walk next to him. “Are your cousins here too? Do you watch _Star Trek_?” As Justin continued to fire off questions for Albus (who merely opened and closed his mouth without getting a word in), Omar stuck his hand out to the Ravenclaws.

“Omar Ba, Hufflepuff first year. Good to meet you.”

“Sophie Iskikian,” the girl said, shaking his hand. “Ravenclaw first year. And this is Karen Kim—” the girl who’d gotten stuck in the vanishing step (and back out of it, to Scorpius’ relief) waved, “—and, er, Simon—”

“It’s _Szymon_ ,” a boy with buzzed short hair said. “Szymon Kawczynski.” Scorpius started muttering Szymon’s name to himself, trying to memorise the sounds.

“Right, what he said,” Sophie said, “and that over there is Albus Potter. Yes, _famous_ Potter.” She rolled her eyes, but neither Scorpius nor Omar gave any indication that they knew any famous Potters. Scorpius knew about Harry Potter, of course, who he thought was probably Albus' father, but he didn't see how that would make Albus famous. 

“Scorpius Malfoy,” Scorpius said, offering his hand. “Hufflepuff first year.” 

“I guess Hufflepuff really _does_ take anyone,” Karen said with a sound in her voice that Scorpius didn’t think was kindness. He felt his face flush and dropped his hand. “What, are you so evil not even Slytherin wanted you? Hufflepuff might want to re-think that whole ‘we’ll take anyone’ thing, you know.” 

“Scorpius isn’t evil,” Omar said through gritted teeth, and he placed his hands firmly on Scorpius’ shoulders and steered him away. Then he lifted his head and called out to Justin who was still firing questions at Albus, “C’mon, Justin!” The three of them then quickened their pace and left the Ravenclaws behind. 

“What was that about?” Justin asked as they turned down a corridor. 

“Nothing,” Scorpius muttered, and Omar shook his head and gave Justin a look that told him to drop it.

“Oh.” They descended the marble staircase in silence. _Are you so evil not even Slytherin wanted you?_ Scorpius heard echoing in his mind as his stomach twisted anxiously.

 

“What's that?” someone asked. Scorpius looked up. To his right, Col had just squeezed in between him and Jessica, who was absorbed in conversation with Zena, one of the other first year girls. Col was looking at the structure he'd been making on his plate out of breakfast foods. 

“Looks like a castle.” James was straddling the bench on his other side, facing him. 

“It's Hogwarts,” Omar said from over James' shoulder. Scorpius grinned back at Omar. 

“You should be in Ravenclaw with Al,” James said. “He loves weird stuff like that.” Col and James exchanged a look Scorpius couldn't read. 

“Did you get post?” Col asked. “What'd your family say?” Scorpius reached into his robes and pulled out the letter from his parents. 

“My mum said she thinks it's _brilliant_ ,” Scorpius said with a grin, as shoved the letter into Col's hand. “They’re _proud_ of me.” She skimmed the letter and smiled back at him. 

“That's really great, Scorpius.”

“Speaking of your family,” James said slowly. He glanced back at Omar, who was now looking at James with his eyebrows drawn together. “Hey, private conversation, kid.” Omar merely frowned back at him. 

“It's fine; they're my friends,” Scorpius reassured Omar. He didn't look wholly convinced, perhaps bothered by the request for privacy, but turned away to talk to Justin.

“You too, Jessica,” Col said because Jessica had just noticed the red and gold of James’ robes and had opened her mouth to say something. Jessica looked at Scorpius, who shrugged, and then turned away. James and Col glanced around themselves, then:

“You didn't tell us you're a _Malfoy_ ,” James hissed, saying his last name like something gross and dirty. Scorpius' breath caught in his chest.

“ _James_ ,” Col hissed back. “Don't say it like _that_.”

“Like what? Like they're _Death Eaters_?” Scorpius flinched. He felt like his skin was on fire. He hated those words. He hated, hated, hated them. Any time someone said them, it always ended badly. 

“Yeah, that. Don't say it like that.” Col looked at James darkly and put her hand on Scorpius' shoulder. Scorpius jerked away and returned to building his castle. “We _told_ you it'd just upset him, James.”

“Upset _him_? How do you think I feel? He lied to us! And he's a _Malfoy_ , so how do I know he's not just trying to trick me or use me or something?” Scorpius nibbled at a piece of bacon to shape it before adding it to the castle. 

“Because Hufflepuffs aren't like that.” Scorpius carefully drained the juice from the baked beans into the basin he'd made for the lake. 

“So? Maybe his father taught him some dark magic for tricking the Hat to throw everyone off, or maybe Hufflepuff has some secret monster too that he's been sent to—” Scorpius sliced a piece of sausage to make branches for the tree he'd seen by the lake. 

“You're being ridiculous, James. Scorpius—” Col tried to touch his arm, but he dodged her this time. Scorpius grabbed his letter back from Col, pulled some photos out of the envelope, and shoved them into James' hand without looking at him. 

“I asked my mum to send them to me because I thought you were my friend,” Scorpius said, pushing the words out sharply to keep from choking on them. He looked back at the castle. Through his wet, blurred vision he could see that it was drooping weirdly and looked more like a shack than a castle, Scorpius thought. In fact, he decided, it didn't even look like a shack, just a gross pile of breakfast foods that shouldn't have been mixed. 

“Is that your mum?” James asked quietly. Scorpius didn't look over. He knew exactly what James was looking at. A bludger would speed into the picture from the top right corner just as a red headed woman flew in from the left, clutching the quaffle. It would look like it was surely going to hit her until the last moment when a bat would come flying in from bottom right and whack it away. A moment later, Scorpius' mother would race up after the bat and catch it as her teammate flew off with the quaffle. Then she'd fly out of the picture and it'd start all over again. It was one of Scorpius' favourite pictures, and he'd stared at it endlessly, marvelling at his mother's ingenuity and the perfect arc of the bat. He had asked his mother to send it so he could show James in the hopes that maybe then he would have someone else who loved the picture as he did, but now, well, Scorpius didn't know what. 

“I didn't lie to you,” Scorpius said, still staring at the drooping castle. James stared at the photo for another minute and then switched to the second photo. Scorpius picked up his fork and jammed it into his failed castle, bringing the structure down into a heap. 

“Merlin, Al had so much hair!” James whispered. It was the photo Ginny Weasley had sent Scorpius’ mum when he was born. James sighed, and Scorpius felt his eyes on his face now. “Listen, Scorpius, I didn’t mean—” he started.

“Yes you did. Don’t lie to me.” Scorpius jammed his fork into the sausage tree and took a bite. Col and James were both silent for a moment.

“Scorpius—” Col said, reaching toward him again. He jerked away, and she fell silent again. The sausage tasted disgusting. James set the photos down on the table beside Scorpius’ plate. Scorpius could feel both of them breathing, thinking beside him. More than anything, he just wanted them to leave.

“I’m sorry,” James said so quietly, Scorpius suspected even Col couldn’t hear it. Scorpius didn’t say anything, but shoved his left arm in front of James’ face. James flinched back, but Scorpius just held his arm up as he took a bite of a mix of beans, bacon, and hashed browns.

“You think I’m a Death Eater,” Scorpius said. “Go on, check my arm.”

“Scorpius—” Col said again.

“Stop saying my name like that. That’s how my grandmother says it when she’s done something mean and wants me to pretend she didn’t.” Scorpius looked at James finally.

“I said check my arm, Potter.”

“I don’t think you’re—”

“Stop lying to me. You just said you think I’m going to go find some monster and probably go killing people or something with it.”

“I didn’t mean it like—”

“ _James_ ,” Col hissed.

“I don't think you're a Death Eater, okay?” James’ voice had gone shrill. “If I check your arm, you're going to say I'm a git for not trusting you. So whatever, fine, I overreacted, okay?” James slapped his hands down loudly on the table and stood up. “I'm _sorry_.” Then he stepped back over the bench and strode away. Omar slid back over into the empty spot and glared at Cole. 

“I thought Hufflepuffs were fair and just and loyal,” Omar said quietly. 

“It was a private conversation,” she said coolly. “Eavesdropping wasn’t very _Hufflepuff_ of you.”

“I don’t know _why_ everyone is treating Scorpius like he’s some evil murderer whenever they hear his surname, but unless you’ve got proof of anything _Scorpius_ has done wrong, he shouldn’t even have to defend himself, especially not to someone he calls his friend.” Col opened her mouth to say another retort but closed it just as quickly and looked at Scorpius wide-eyed.

“Did someone else say something to you, Scorpius?” And so it was that right at that moment Scorpius reached his limit for how much bickering about him and his name he could handle, and he dropped his head straight into the ruins of his castle. Omar said something, but Scorpius didn’t listen. He felt something brush against his side and decided it was probably Col getting up. Scorpius didn’t bother caring. 

“Is that how wizards eat food?” he heard Jessica ask. He lifted his head up to look at her. She was grinning at him.

“Yeah, you should try,” he said. Jessica dropped her face onto her own plate, laughing. Scorpius laughed back, feeling some of the tension leave his body as he did.

“You two look ridiculous,” Omar said, smiling.

“We look like wizards,” Jessica said. “Go on, you try!”

“What? And come out looking like you two? No thanks.”

“Guess you don’t want to be a _proper_ wizard,” Scorpius said, making a face like he often saw his Grandmother Ismene make. He did his best impression of her voice: “A proper wizard does not associate with muggle devices such as forks!” A couple of the other nearby first years started laughing too. Soon they were all making up silly things _proper_ wizards did or didn’t do, and Scorpius all but forgot about Karen Kim and James and Col.


	7. Induction

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not yet proofed. Might change/amend a bit, but I wanted to at least get the chapter up on time. This notice will disappear once I've had a chance to have a second set of eyes check it. Enjoy! :)

“What’d your family say?” Scorpius asked Zena as they walked back up from breakfast. He’d met her the night before when they’d both gone to the common room to give their letters to the Prefect at the same time. They’d walked back together, whispering their excitements and anxieties about what their families would say and what their first day at Hogwarts would bring.

“That they’re very proud and also they hope I haven’t eaten any meat because none of it is halal here. You know, the usual parent stuff.” She rolled her eyes and smiled. “What about yours?”

“My parents are proud, but I guess my aunt and my grandparents didn’t write back.”

“Or maybe it was just really late when they got your letters,” she suggested. “How far are your family?”

“Wiltshire.”

“Oh, yeah, that’s pretty far. I bet it was the middle of the night when your letter got there. Maybe they were just asleep.”

“Yeah, probably,” Scorpius said, feeling a bit more cheerful. It wasn’t like he got on great with the rest of his family, so he wasn’t sure _why_ he’d been upset to not have letters from them, but still, he was.

“Helga Hufflepuff,” one of the other first years they’d walked back with said, tapping the middle barrel of the entrance to Hufflepuff house with his wand.

“I don’t think you have to actually say it, Hiro,” Justin said. “You know, in case someone from some other house is spying on you, you don’t need to make it obvious.”

“No one spies on Hufflepuff,” Hiro said as they started down the sloping passageway. “We don’t have anything anyone would want to steal.”

“Yeah,” Zena said, “my brother says the only people who’d come into our common room are people who got lost trying to find their way into the kitchens.”

“Are the kitchens nearby?” a girl at the front of the group said. “Brilliant! Think we’d get in trouble for going there after curfew?”

“Going _where_ after curfew?” came the voice of a woman. Scorpius and the rest of the first years with him stepped into the common room to see a Black woman in pale blue robes sitting in a chair facing them, arms crossed but with an amused look on her face. “Haven’t even been here a day, and already you’re planning to put Hufflepuff in negative points, hm?”

“No, ma’am,” the girl said, looking down at the floor.

“Professor Kobayashi will do,” the woman said. “Head of Hufflepuff House.” She smiled and held out her hand, still seated.

“Natasha Blackthorn,” the girl said nervously as she shook Professor Kobayashi's hand.

“Well, Miss Blackthorn, I trust you understand that you will get in trouble for going out anywhere after curfew, and I will personally make sure to deduct points from Hufflepuff if I find out any of you have been wandering the halls at night. Understood?” Natasha nodded nervously, and Professor Kobayashi patted her shoulder then smiled at the rest of them expectantly. Justin pushed forward eagerly and stuck out his hand.

“Justin Carver-Cartwright. Named after my uncle,” he said proudly, puffing out his chest, “Hufflepuff hero Justin Finch-Fletchley, founding member of Dumbledore’s Army. My mum even gave me his _magic coin_.” He reached into his robes and pulled out a Galleon which he held up to Professor Kobayashi. His face fell a moment later. “I don’t know anything about him though. Just that he was murdered in a war, and that my mum didn’t want me to be part of the wizarding world because of him.” Professor Kobayashi put a hand on his arm.

“Your uncle was a good, brave man whom you should feel very proud of. Murdered by Death Eaters, but he went down fighting. You should ask Professor Longbottom about him. He knew your uncle well.” Justin nodded, and she dropped her hand. Scorpius’ heart was racing again. What would Justin think if he knew about Scorpius’ family? Would he react like James did, and like that Ravenclaw girl had?

“That said,” Professor Kobayashi continued, “I trust you understand that starting any secret armies like your uncle did is still strictly forbidden, and Headmistress Hillstone isn’t quite so lenient about bending the rules and playing favourites as Headmaster Dumbledore was during your uncle's time. If you find my Defense Against the Dark Arts lessons lacking in any way, you are welcome to speak with me or with Headmistress Hillstone." She smiled at the students again, and Justin stepped aside to let the next person introduce themselves. No one moved, perhaps too intimidated to go right after the nephew of a war hero, so Professor Kobayashi surveyed them. When her eyes fell on Scorpius, he quickly looked at his feet.

“Scorpius!” Justin hissed, grabbing his arm and pulling him forward. Scorpius stumbled forward and looked up at Professor Kobayashi, his heart pounding in his ears. Scorpius opened his mouth, but no sound came out. He glanced at Justin, who gave him a confused look then shrugged and put his arm over Scorpius’ shoulder. “This is my new friend Scorpius Malfoy, Professor Kobayashi.” Scorpius felt pressure beginning to build in his chest as it grew steadily harder to breathe. “He’s a bit shy at first, but he knows _everything_ about magic!” She was going to tell Justin that Scorpius’ family had been Death Eaters. “It’s amazing!” Justin was going to hate him. “I bet he’ll be top of the class.” Scorpius decided he was going to just run.

“Yes, I’m sure you’ll do well, Mr. Malfoy.” She smiled at him. Scorpius felt air rush back into his lungs. “Good to have you in Hufflepuff.” Maybe she didn’t know his family had been Death Eaters, or maybe she just didn’t care. Either way, Scorpius was relieved. He then realised she’d put out her hand to shake, and Scorpius quickly shook it, then looked back at Zena to indicate she should go next.

“Zena Shenu,” she said, stepping forward to shake Professor Kobayashi’s hand.

“Ahmad’s little sister?” Zena nodded. “He’s a sweet kid.”

“Don’t tell,” Zena whispered to Scorpius as she stepped aside, “but Ahmad’s the good one in the family. I’m all trouble.” She grinned mischievously. Then Omar and Hiro also introduced themselves, and Professor Kobayashi sent them to join a group of First Years gathered around the fireplace. Jessica pulled Scorpius over to one of the sofas and had him sit with her.

“You’re nervous again,” Jessica said, frowning at him.

“Scorpius?” Justin said, hopping onto the arm of the sofa next to Scorpius. “Naw, he just got shy introducing himself to Professor Kobayashi because he had to go after me. Not everyone’s family is famous like mine.” Justin shoved Scorpius’ shoulder lightly. “That’s okay, Scorp. You still know way more about the wizarding world than I do. C’mon, tell us about Dumbledore’s Army.”

“It was, you know,” Scorpius stuttered nervously, “just this thing.”

“Oh, c’mon, you’re the wizarding expert, you gotta know more than that. Like who was Dumbledore? Why’d he have an army? All I know is that it was a really big deal and they—”

“I don’t really know,” Scorpius said quickly. “My family doesn’t like to talk about the war.” Justin’s expression sobered.

“Oh, I didn’t—did you—I mean—I guess with your family being all wizards and everything—” Justin stopped and took a deep breath. “Sorry. I mean, I don’t know much, but I guess probably every wizarding family lost a lot in the war. You don’t have to talk about it.”

“Thanks.” Scorpius looked down at his feet, trying to push away the panicked feeling that had been growing in his chest. It felt like a wave, rising and falling over and over ever since he’d arrived at Hogwarts. He hoped it’d stop soon.

“What classes do we take?” Jessica asked.

“Well, there’s Potions, and Charms, and Transfiguration, and Herbology, and Defense Against the Dark Arts, and first years have to take flying lessons, and—” Justin nudged Scorpius’ shoulder. Professor Kobayashi was now sitting facing all of them. Scorpius could have sworn it was the same chair as she had been in before.

“Welcome to Hufflepuff!” she said. A few students clapped. “For those of you who don't know or have already forgotten, I'm Professor Kobayashi, Head of Hufflepuff House and your Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. My most important job here is to support you and make sure you're safe and happy, so if ever you need anything while you're here, anything at all, please just come talk to me."

"Yeah, she's basically our Mum," a girl's voice said. Scorpius turned and saw the Prefect who'd let students in one by one the previous night leaning against the wall next to one of the other Prefects.

"Morning, Mum," the boy with her said to Professor Kobayashi. She smiled back and looked back at the first years.

“Today is a very special day here in Hufflepuff. It's a long-standing tradition that Hufflepuff house always spends the first weekend bonding together, a tradition we usually just call Induction, and all of you are especially lucky because you get to go through Induction your very first day here!" She beamed at them as if this were the most fantastic thing that could ever happen. "Rest assured that you have nothing to worry about with Induction. The Prefects are going to help us with some activities to get to know each other, and then the second years will join us so you can start to get to know them as well. Just before lunch, you'll each be paired up with a Fourth Year who will be like a big sibling for you here in Hufflepuff, and then we have optional games until dinner time. Don’t worry about remembering all that, though. The Prefects have written copies of the schedule if you want to see one. Okay?” A couple kids nodded. “And the rest of you?” She raised an eyebrow. Scorpius glanced around and, seeing others nodding, decided to do the same. “Great, Paloma?” She looked over to the Prefects again, where four other students—the other Prefects, Scorpius guessed—had joined them. They were huddled together, whispering, and didn’t seem to have heard Professor Kobayashi. “Paloma?” she said again, louder this time. The girl who’d taught the first years how to tap the barrells jumped and spun around.

“Yes! Ready!” She rushed over to stand beside Professor Kobayashi and looked at the first years. “Good morning! I’m Paloma, one of the Hufflepuff Prefects and Head Girl here at Hogwarts.” She waved cheerfully. “If you ever need anything, just ask me. We’re going to do a little activity to start out, so the other Prefects are going to pass out some sweets right now. Take as many as you want, but you can’t eat any of them yet, okay?” She made two thumbs up and raised her eyebrows. A few students nodded. “I want to hear you lot say yes!”

“Yes,” the first years said, with varying levels of enthusiasm. Scorpius, for his part, had gone for just over a whisper, but Jessica and Justin had shouted so loud he thought he might be permanently deaf. A moment later, one of the Prefects—a boy with tan, curly hair who introduced himself as David—came by with a floating platter covered in all kinds of sweets.

“Are those wizard sweets?” Jessica asked, eyeing them carefully.

“Yeah,” David said.

“Can I have one of every kind?” Just asked. “I’ve never had wizard sweets before!” David shrugged.

“I wouldn’t take an Acid Pop, if I were you, but, yeah, sure, go ahead.”

“What’s an Acid Pop?’ Jessica asked.

“Burns a hole straight through your tongue,” Scorpius said, grabbing a Jelly Slug.

“WHAT?”

“It’s just a bit of magic, heals just fine,” David said.

“Really?” Justin said. “Which one’s that?” David pointed to the pops on the edge of the platter, and Justin grabbed one and started peeling off the wrapper.

“Can’t eat it yet!” David reminded him. Justin frowned, and looked at Scorpius’s Jelly Slug.

“Is that all you’re taking?”

“Yeah,” Scorpius said.

“Is that one good? Does it burn through your tongue or anything like that?” Jessica asked.

“No, just feels funny, like a slug sliding down your throat and around your stomach.”

“Ew,” she said.

“They’re better than it sounds,” David said. “Fizzing Whizzbees and Pepper Imps are pretty good too.” He pointed them out as he talked. “Go on, just try something.” Jessica frowned but took some Fizzing Whizzbees, Pepper Imps, and, at Scorpius’ nudging, one Jelly Slug.

“Are you sure I can take one of each?” Justin asked again.

“Sure.”

“Awesome,” he said, and quickly grabbed one of each. Soon, all the students had grabbed some sweets, and Scorpius saw that even Professor Kobayashi had grabbed some Every Flavour Beans.

“All right,” Paloma said, facing them all again. The other Prefects sat down on the sofas with the first years. “The way the activity works is that for every sweet you grabbed, you’re going to share something about yourself with us.” Scorpius and Jessica stifled laughs as Justin groaned. “I’ve taken five pieces, so I’ll start us off and tell you five things about me. I am the youngest of nine kids,” she put up one finger, “but I’m the first one in Hufflepuff,” she put up a second finger. “The Bent-Wing Snitches are my favourite band,” third finger, “and I went to the World Cup in 2014 just to see them,” fourth finger. “I still don’t understand the rules of Quidditch,” fifth finger. “Who’s next? Oh, and you can eat your sweets once you’ve gone.” Justin shoved his sweets into Scorpius’ hands and leapt off the sofa, arm raised high. The others laughed good naturedly. “Go ahead. How many did you grab?”

“Uh, a lot? How many is it, Scorp?”

“One of each,” David said. “I think ten things will be enough, right, Paloma?”

“Yeah, just ten will do.”

“And then you can eat them, kid,” David laughed.

“Okay, uh, my name is Justin Carver-Cartwright, does that count?”

“Sure,” Paloma said.

“Cool.” He put up one finger. “My mum is a Member of Parliament,” two fingers, “and my dad is a music director on the West End,” three fingers. “My uncle was a wizard though,” four fingers, “and he was in Dumbledore’s Army, which is pretty cool,” five fingers. “I don’t even know what that thing that she said _is_ , let alone any rules,” six fingers. “Er, this is hard. Ooh! I don’t know what else to say, that’s a thing about me!” He put up a seventh finger.

“Do you have any pets back home?” One of the Prefects suggested.

“Oh, yeah, we have a dog! Her name is Lucy,” eight fingers. “She likes to sleep on my face,” nine fingers, “but then she farts, and it smells really gross,” ten fingers. The other first years laughed, and Justin sat back down and grabbed his sweets from Scorpius. “Okay, you go next, Scorpius!”

“Er, okay.” Scorpius stood up and help up his Jelly Slug. “Hi, I’m Scorpius. I wasn’t very hungry, so I just took a Jelly Slug, so, er, my favourite colour is purple.” Then Scorpius gulped down his Jelly Slug and squinched up his face as he felt it ooze down his throat.

“That’s not going to last, if we have any say,” Paloma said. “By the time you finish here, your favourite colours are going to be yellow and black.” The other Prefects chanted “Hufflepuff! Hufflepuff!” for a moment.

“Purple, yellow, and black, then,” Scorpius said and sat down. “Your turn, Jessica.”

“I took seven, so here goes!” Jessica said. She handed her sweets to Scorpius and stood up. “My name is Jessica De la Cruz,” one finger. “My family are from the Phillipines,” two, “but I was born and raised in Yorkshire,” three. “I’m the first witch in the family, which is pretty cool,” four. “I have a cat called Sassy,” five, “but my dad told me she couldn’t come because he didn’t think I could take care of her,” six. “Oh, and I live with my dad,” seven. “Or used to, I suppose, because now I live here, sort of. Natasha?”

Jessica sat down, and the girl on the other side of her stood up and began listing off a few things about herself. They kept going around the circle until at last everyone had shared a few things about themselves. Scorpius found it was more than he could remember. Hiro said he wanted to go to Brazil. Zena’s favourite musician was Celestina Warbeck. Omar tried to explain a wizarding sport Scorpius had never heard of. A boy called Michael was adopted by Muggles and didn’t know anything about his birth parents. Natasha had talked about food the whole time. When Professor Kobayashi had her turn, someone asked her if Headmistress Hillstone was really her girlfriend, and she said no, she was her wife, which made some of the other students giggle. After everyone had gone and had a chance to eat their sweets, David got up to lead the next activity.

“Okay, everyone up for this one,” he said. “If anyone has trouble standing or walking though, let know, and we can set it up so you can still participate without doing that. Anyone?” No one said anything. “Okay, cool, just you, Professor.” He nodded to Professor Kobayashi, and Scorpius finally realised why she hadn’t even stood to greet them. She must not have been able to walk, Scorpius realised. Or at least it was hard.

“Expecto Patronum!” she said, and a silver fox leapt from her wand and landed beside David. A few students, Scorpius included, gasped. “Right, there we are, that’s me.”

“Woah, you can cast a _Patronus_?” Hiro asked.

“Yes, I can, and if you work hard on your Defense Against the Dark Arts lessons, I can teach you in a few years.”

“What’s a Patro—er, what he said?” Justin asked.

“Highly advanced magic,” Zena said.

“They were used a lot in the war,” Paloma added. “Harry Potter is famous for being able to do one when he was just a kid.”

“Anyway,” David said, “Professor Kobayashi can teach you more about them later because we’re going to play a game now.” He turned, waved his wand, and then made a broad swish from one side of the room to another. A bright white line appeared on the ground in front of him and he turned back to the students. “Okay, here’s how it works. I’m going to give you two options, one for each end of the line, and you all move to whichever end you like or agree with most, or whichever is most like you. You can stand anywhere along the line though, so if you like two things equally, you can even just stand right in the middle. Make sense?” Scorpius wasn’t entirely sure he understood, but it didn’t seem too complicated. “C’mon, everybody up!” He motioned at them, and they all got up and stood along the white line, facing him. The silver fox joined them as well.

“First question, how are you feeling? This side—” he pointed to their left “—for super anxious or scared, and this side—” he pointed to their right “—for excited, happy, and such. If you’re a mix of both, like me, you might go kind of toward one end but not all the way. See?” He marched himself a few paces toward the excited side. “I’m excited to be back, but a bit nervous, too, so here feels about right. Go on, you pick your spots.” Scorpius walked toward the anxious side, but decided not to go to the end. He was surprised when Omar walked past him all the way to the most anxious end of the line, and Scorpius wondered why he was feeling so anxious.

“Okay, great job!” David said. “Next, Hufflepuff is the best house. Agree on that side, and disagree over there.” Most went to the agree side, but Scorpius chose disagree and was surprised to see Professor Kobayashi’s Patronus follow him all the way to the end.

“I just think that they’re all good,” Scorpius explained.

“That’s why there was an option,” David said. They continued on with more and more questions, on everything from which subjects sounded the best to which sweets they liked, until the second years joined them. Then Lexy, another Prefect, taught them all a game she said was called Head Auror, but Jessica swore was the same as a Muggle game called Ultimate Ninja. Either way, Scorpius loved the game and was disappointed when they had to stop playing. The rest of the fifth years had come and started taking second years though, and the fourth years had all gathered around in the common room too.

“All right, first years,” Professor Kobayashi said when everyone had quieted down, “you’ve all been assigned a Fourth Year student as your buddy. They’re here to help you with whatever you need. They can help you with homework, with adjusting to the wizarding world if it’s new to you, with finding your way around the castle, with whatever you need. I’m also here to help with all those things, but I know it’s easier to talk to other students, so, well, that’s what your big sibling is for.

“Fourth years, you should all have the names of your little siblings. If you’ve already met, you can go ahead and just grab them and head off now. The rest of you, can you ask me, and I’ll direct you to your first year, okay?” The fourth years all followed suit. Arav, the boy Scorpius had met the night before, walked up to him.

“Hey, Scorpius,” he said. “I’m your big sibling! The Great Hall should start serving lunch any minute now, so I was thinking we could go grab some sandwiches and go eat by the lake so we can get to know each other. How’s that sound?”

“Sounds perfect,” Scorpius said, grinning. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> But really: is Hufflepuff the best house or what?


	8. Except Not Quite As Dead

The First Year Hufflepuffs all sat together at dinner that night. Some of the older students had cast a series of spells to make it easier for all of the first years to hear each other in the noisy Hall, and they spent the meal swapping all the bits of Hogwarts tips and trivia their big siblings had given them and bragging about how cool their big siblings were.

“Arav’s _brilliant_ at charms,” Scorpius told the attentive audience. “He taught me one to make little bubbles in the lake, look.” Scorpius pulled his wand out of his pocket and the other first years leaned in to watch. He jabbed it into his pumpkin juice while repeating the incantation Arac had taught him, and a burst of bubbles filled the water and made the cup overflow.

“How does the physics of that even work?” Ashley, one of the first year girls, asked. “I mean, where is the air even coming from?”

“What?”

“Muggle science,” Jessica explained. “I’d say it’s probably magic.” The first years laughed.

“Well, _my_ sibling,” Natasha said, “showed me how to get into the kitchens. We got an afternoon snack.” The other students murmured their agreement that that was, indeed, pretty cool.

“How?” Zena asked. “My brother never tells me these things!”

“You know that portrait of fruit down one of the corridors by Hufflepuff?” The first years nodded. “Tickle the pear.”

“Do the house elves still work there?” Hiro asked. “I heard they all quit when Headmistress McGonagall decided to start paying all of them.”

“There were tons of house elves there. Do they really all get paid now? I know technically you’re not allowed to _own_ house elves anymore, but—”

“You used to be able to _own_ elves?” Justin asked, his face pale.

“It’s illegal, but some people still do,” Hiro said.

“Well, I didn’t ask them,” Natasha said, “but Headmistress Hillstone is a Hufflepuff, and Hufflepuffs are supposed to be fair, so they probably aren’t _slaves_.”

“We should find out and make sure,” Zena said. A wave of agreement swept through the first years. No one else said anything for a moment, then:

“This is _exciting_ ,” Jessica said. “Doing stuff. _Hufflepuff_ stuff. You know, making sure things are fair and just and all that. I just really love this place, and I’m so glad I’m in Hufflepuff with you lot.”

“Yeah, same,” Michael said while others nodded. “The Hat tried to put me in Slytherin. Nothing against Slytherin, obviously, but I read all about the houses before coming, and I knew I wanted to be in Hufflepuff.”

“The Hat wanted to put you in _Slytherin_?” Ashley, who was sitting next to him, asked. “Oh, Michael!” She flung her arms around him and hugged him tightly. A moment later, she let go and looked away awkwardly. “I just—you know—I’m glad we’re friends.”

“I’m glad we’re _all_ friends,” Omar said. More nods of agreement went through the Hufflepuffs, and Scorpius felt, for the first time, like he was really part of something good, a group of friends.

 

Which is precisely why, an hour later, he found himself alone in the corner of the common room with Justin, nervously pulling at his robes and doing everything he could to avoid saying what he’d decided he had to say.

“He’s going to _hate_ me,” Scorpius had told Arav earlier that day. “When he finds out about my family, he’ll never speak to me again.”

“He won’t hate you, Scorpius,” Arav reassured him.

“His uncle was in Dumbledore’s Army and _died_ in the war. He was probably killed by Death Eaters. Maybe even tortured. Probably by someone in my family. I mean, James—”

“James Potter would freak out if you changed your _hair_ without consulting him. True story. Ask Col about it sometime. He’s a good person,” Arav rolled his eyes as if calling James Potter a good person was the last thing he wanted to do, “but he has a tendency to overreact to things, so don’t expect your friend to be so, you know, James. Just tell Justin yourself. You’ll feel better knowing it’s over with.”

 

_You’ll feel better_ , Scorpius tried to reassure himself as he searched for how to tell Justin about his family. _James just overreacts_.

“So, um,” Justin said, looking both confused and worried, “is everything okay, or—”

“I just,” Scorpius said, then trailed off, staring at ends of Justin’s robes. “I don’t want you to hate me,” he whispered.

“What?” Justin’s voice shot up at least an octave. “You’re my friend. Honestly probably my best friend here, Scorp. I don’t hate you.”

“It’s just, your uncle—”

“Oh, Scorp, I don’t care that your family weren’t war heroes like my uncle.”

“No, I mean—” Scorpius took a deep breath and forced himself to look at Justin’s face. “My family weren’t war heroes because—because they were—they were D- _Death Eaters_.” Scorpius’ voice had dropped to the tiniest whisper. He tried to figure out how Justin was reacting, but Scorpius couldn’t read his face. Justin’s face twisted, his eyebrows rose and scrunched themselves down, his mouth opened and closed, his eyes kept moving. Finally, he said:

“Did they—my uncle, I mean—do you know if—?”

“I don’t know anything about your uncle. My family doesn’t talk about the war much. I just know my dad never killed anyone, and he only joined because Voldemort was going to kill his parents and he was scared. And my mum was never a Death Eater. It’s mostly just my dad’s side who were, so a lot of people hear my last name and think I’m—”

“Well I don’t.”

“What?”

“I don’t hear your name and think anything except, ‘Hey, he’s my friend, he’s cool.’”

“But my family—”

“We can be like _Romeo and Juliet_ then.”

“Who’s that?”

“It’s a play. Romeo and Juliet’s families hate each other, but they love each other. Everyone dies, so maybe let’s skip that, and there’s a lot of kissing, which is gross, so skip that too, but it’s a _classic_. Maybe my dad can get us tickets sometime. Bet you’ve never been to see a muggle play before!” Justin grinned.

“I’ve never met a muggle. I mean, I’ve seen them, but—”

“You’ve got to come meet my family then! I bet they’d love you. Do wizards have Hanukkah and Christmas? You should come over for the holidays!”

“I’d love that.” Scorpius took a deep breath, exhaled the nerves he’d been holding in his chest, and smiled back at his friend. 

“Scorpius! Justin!” Michael jogged across the room and stopped in front of them. “Party in our dorm. Omar and Hiro are getting the girls, I’ve got a ton of wizard sweets from Paloma, and I think Natasha is going to the kitchens to sneak some extra desserts before curfew. Can you help me set up in there?”

“Oh, yeah, sure,” Scorpius said.

“Definitely,” Justin said. Then they followed Michael back to the dorm and hurriedly shoved everyone’s things into their trunks to make it look clean and pulled the cushions from outside their dorms into the room.

“Didn’t they say last night that girls aren’t allowed in the boys’ dorm?” Jessica asked as she walked in, along with Hiro, Omar, Ashley, and Zena.

“I’m pretty sure they just meant without permission,” Hiro said, “and we invited you, didn’t we?”

“Ahmad told me that in Gryffindor the castle just throws you out if you try to go into the other dorm.”

“That’s only for boys going into the girls’ dorm,” Hiro said, a tut in his voice as if everyone should know that. “My mum said she used to walk into the boys’ dorm all the time just to tease the boys for not being able to go into her dorm.”

“So we can go in yours but you can’t go in ours.” Zena grinned.

“Ooh, let’s test it!” Jessica grabbed Scorpius’ arm and marched him out and straight through the doorway of the girls’ dorm. Nothing happened.

“Woah, cool!” Hiro said, pushing past them.

“Hey!” Jessica cut in front of him. “I didn’t invite _you_.”

“I’m just looking, chill.” He smirked, craning his head to look over his shoulder at the rest of the dorm. “Some nice Muggle posters there. Those yours then?” Jessica’s face reddened.

“I said _out_!” Jessica shrieked, jabbing a finger toward the door. There was a bang, and suddenly Hiro was thrown through the air. He landed with a thud outside the room. Scorpius and Jessica ran out after him.

“Okay, okay, sorry,” Hiro grumbled, rubbing his backside. “Lesson learned, no going in the girl’s dorm without permission.” Jessica offered him a hand and a dark look, and they went back to the boys’ dorm and shared the exciting news that boys could go into the girls’ dorm, but the dorm would kick them out if they weren’t welcome. Soon, Natasha joined them with a teetering stack of cakes, and they spent the rest of the night eating, talking, and laughing over all the funny things the magic sweets made them do, like blowing sparks out of their ears, changing their voices, and even making them float for a minute. Slowly, they each fell asleep, sprawled across the cushions and beds, dreaming of what wonders awaited them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, that was a reference to "I Found A Loophole" by The Whomping Willows: https://thewhompingwillows.bandcamp.com/track/i-found-a-loophole 
> 
> The line is at 2:45: "We'll be like Romeo and Juliet except not quite as dead."


	9. Headmistress Hillstone

Sunday was another day full of Induction. After breakfast, the Hufflepuffs all stayed in the Great Hall to play a game Scorpius had never heard of called Squawkball. They were split up into two teams and given a bunch of brightly coloured balls which the other students explained were for throwing at the other team. The point of the game was to hit each person on the other team, and they were told to aim below the waist. 

“That’s exactly like Dodgeball,” Justin said. “Muggles play it all the time.” 

“Muggles don’t have magic,” one of the other students said. “Just wait until someone gets hit.”

“Ready?” Professor Kobayashi called. The students cheered back. Scorpius picked up a bright green ball and got ready to throw. “Go!” 

Blurs of colour shot through the air. Scorpius flung his ball but didn’t see where it went because he was distracted by a burst of purple feathers beside him. Where once his friend Justin stood, there was now a bright purple duck. Scorpius burst out laughing just as a pink ball raced at his face. It hit, though he barely felt the impact, and then suddenly his body felt tingly and weird. He could feel everything moving, and then just as suddenly, it stopped. He stretched out his arms and—no, those weren’t arms, they were feathers. He was _flying_. 

_Flap, flap_ , he beat his wings as if it were the most natural thing in the world. He looked around and saw a mix of students and brightly coloured ducks and owls. _Am I an owl?_ he thought. The other owls were swooping down, knocking balls away from hitting students. The ducks were waddling around making noise. A couple tried flapping their wings, but it didn’t seem to do anything. Scorpius didn’t dare try to dive to block any balls and instead just flew in circles over the game, watching as slowly, one by one, the last students turned into ducks or owls until there was only one left standing. 

The last student cheered (along with some ducks and owls), and then Scorpius felt his body suddenly go weird and tingly again. A moment later, he felt a rush of wind as he dropped through the air. The landing didn’t hurt, thankfully, but it took him a moment to realise he’d turned back into his normal, wizard self. Jessica offered him a hand, and he stood back up and joined the First Years who were gathering excitedly to discuss their first ever game of Squawkball.

“That was _nothing_ like Dodgeball,” Justin said, looking impressed. “I wish I could have been an owl though. How come some people are owls and some people are ducks?”

“Depends on where you’re hit,” Paloma, who had just joined their group, said. “Below the waist turns the person into a duck, which is the best option because in the game ducks can’t do anything but quack. Above the waist turns them into an owl, which takes them out, but owls get to fly around and block balls. If you catch the ball, the person who threw it turns into a duck. If you try to catch it but don’t, you turn into a duck even if it hits above the waist.”

“You could have told us that _before_ the game,” Jessica said. 

“Hufflepuff tradition.” Paloma shrugged. “First Years always get surprised, especially the muggle-borns who expect it to be just like the muggle game. It’s been a Hufflepuff tradition for over a century at least. No one knows the real story of how it got here,” she lowered her voice, and the First Years leaned in, “other than it was a muggle-born who started it. While she was still a student, she figured out how to enchant the balls to turn everyone into birds and taught the game to the rest of Hufflepuff. She was one of the best Transfiguration students Hogwarts has ever had, but no one knows really anything about her. According to legend, she destroyed all record of herself, including from everyone’s memories, which is why we know so little about her. No one knows why.

“But who’s up for another round of Squawkball?” The First Years all jumped at Paloma’s sudden change in tone. “Professor Kobayashi will be pulling you all aside one by one to see how you’re doing and introduce you to the Headmistress. If you’d rather not play, David is setting up some wizard’s chess over in the corner there.” She pointed off to where the tables had been pushed. “There will be a shield charm up to protect you from the Squawkballs, of course. He also has some books from the Hufflepuff library--”

“We have a _library_?” Hiro blurted. “I thought only the Ravenclaws had their own library!”

“Every house has a library, Hiro,” Paloma said. “Ravenclaw just has the biggest. I think ours is the only one that has colouring books, of course. Anyway, like I was saying, books and chess over with David. Squawkball with me. You’re welcome to just hang around and do whatever you want, as long as you stay in here so Professor Kobayashi can find you. If there’s anything else you want, David’s the best one to talk to. He’ll get you set up with anything you want, okay?” No one said anything. “Okay, _sonorus_ ,” she said, pointing her wand at her throat. Scorpius and a couple other first years threw their hands over his ears and elbowed the others to do the same. “Squawkball starting in two minutes!” Paloma’s voice boomed across the hall. 

“C’mon, I want to see if the colouring books are magic,” Justin said, grabbing Scorpius’ arm. 

The morning passed by quickly. The colouring books were, like all colouring books Scorpius had ever seen, magic. The pictures moved (Scorpius had learned to hold them down tightly to keep them from moving while colouring), and the colour options were on all the paper already, you just had to touch them with your finger and then touch where you wanted to colour. By Scorpius’ count, Justin spent at least half an hour talking about how cool the colouring books were. Jessica eventually dragged Scorpius off to play a few rounds of Squawkball until Professor Kobayashi came in and called his name. He, as a neon yellow duck, waddled over to her, and she waved her wand and turned him back into his normal wizard self. 

She led him off to the classroom they had waited in before sorting what seemed like forever ago. 

“Ah, Scorpius Malfoy,” a woman said as they entered. She was smiling, dark curly hair pulled up into a bun. In front of her was a small table with tea and an assortment of biscuits, and there was one empty chair at the table. “Sit.” For a brief moment, Scorpius wondered where Professor Kobayashi would sit, but of course she was already sitting, Scorpius remembered. He sat. 

“Scorpius, this is Headmistress Hillstone,” Professor Kobayashi said. 

“Have a biscuit, dear,” she said. Scorpius picked up a chocolate covered digestive and nervously took a bite. “Would you like any tea?” Scorpius shook his head.

“No, ma’am,” he added. 

“Well, welcome to Hogwarts, Scorpius. I imagine you are wondering what we’re doing here and why I’ve taken you from what was, I'm sure, a thrilling game of Squawkball. I do apologise for that. At the beginning of every year, I like to meet with each of the new students, get to know them all, and give you a chance to get to know me and ask any questions you might have. So no need to worry, you’re not in trouble, just a thing we do here at Hogwarts. I met with all of the new Slytherins and Gryffindors yesterday, going through the Hufflepuffs this morning, and I’ll be meeting with Ravenclaws in the afternoon. Does that help clear things up?” Scorpius nodded. “Excellent. So how are you finding Hogwarts so far, Scorpius?” He glanced over at Professor Kobayashi, unsure of what he should say. She simply smiled encouragingly at him.

“Good, I guess.”

“Have you made any friends? A couple of your classmates have spoken quite fondly of you this morning.” Scorpius’ insides gave a happy leap.

“They’re all really nice, yeah,” Scorpius said. “The Hufflepuffs are.” Headmistress Hillstone and Professor Kobayashi exchanged a quick glance.

“Has there been any trouble with anyone else?”

“No,” Scorpius lied quickly. “It’s all fine. I mean, everyone has been fine.” Scorpius suspected they didn’t believe him, but they didn’t press.

“Some members of your family have been in to see me,” she said carefully. “Your grandfather Lucius was in first thing yesterday morning.” Scorpius’ chest tightened suddenly. Grandfather Lucius visiting his Headmistress couldn’t possibly be a good sign. “I am only telling you this because you have a right to know, and I do not have a right to keep it from you. You have nothing to be concerned about though.”

“What did he want?” Scorpius asked quietly.

“To vaguely threaten me, mostly.” An unexpected laugh escaped Scorpius’ mouth, and he quickly clamped a hand over his mouth.

“Sorry.”

“Your grandfather is a funny man, Scorpius.”

“He’s a _mean_ man,” Scorpius said. Immediately, he regretted it and put his hand back over his mouth, much more tightly. Headmistress Hillstone laughed kindly.

“Your grandfather was concerned about your sorting and swore there was no way you could belong in Hufflepuff, but it’s already apparent to me that the Hat made an excellent choice.” 

“Hufflepuffs value kindness,” Professor Kobayashi added. “If the worst thing you can think to say about someone is that they are mean, Scorpius, I must agree with the Sorting Hat.” The thought had never occurred to Scorpius. Hufflepuff, he had always been taught, was where everyone who didn’t belong in any of the other houses went. It was the house of rejects. Was he kind? Scorpius hoped so. 

“Your parents also came by,” Headmistress Hillstone said, and Scorpius’ heart jumped, “to make sure I ignored your grandfather’s vague threats.” Scorpius breathed a sigh of relief. “Your father was particularly concerned that it would be detrimental to your safety to put you in Slytherin. He suggested that there have been issues for you in the past with some current students in Slytherin.” 

“My cousin is in Slytherin,” Scorpius said firmly.

“Yes, Artemis is a Prefect now, isn’t she?” Professor Kobayashi said. Scorpius nodded.

“Do you and your cousin get along?” Professor Hillstone asked. Scorpius’ mind flashed back to Knockturn Alley but pushed the thought away.

“We don’t really see each other much,” he said. “Just Christmas, mainly, since she’s at school all year and doesn’t usually come over in the summer.”

“I don’t mean to dwell on your family, of course, Scorpius,” Professor Hillstone said. “You are your own person. Please do know though that my job is to keep you safe, not make your family happy, so please do not hesitate to let me know if there is anything I can do to make you feel safer here, even if it is something your family may not like. I will do everything in my power for any of my students, as will Professor Kobayashi.” They fell silent for a moment, and Scorpius wondered if he was supposed to say something. He couldn’t think of anything worth saying though, so he just took another biscuit.

“The other thing we need to do,” Professor Kobayashi said, “is go over your classes.” She reached down to the side of her chair, pulled out a sheet of parchment, and placed it in front of Scorpius. “This is your schedule. Your classes are all at the same time as the rest of the Hufflepuff First Years, so that’s easy enough. All First Years take Defense Against the Dark Arts, Charms, Transfiguration, Potions, Flying, Herbology, Astronomy, and History of Magic. Your Flying lessons only last until Christmas, and then after Christmas, you’ll be taking Introduction to Muggle Studies in its place. Professor Longbottom will lead you to your first lesson from the Great Hall after breakfast tomorrow, and there will be Prefects and professors helping everyone find their way to classes all next week, so there’s no need to worry about getting to classes.

“There are also two things on your schedule that are not classes,” she continued. “The first is that you are supposed to meet with Arav Wednesday afternoons.” She pointed to a little block on the schedule labelled Arav. “That’s different for each student. Arav, of course, is your big sibling, so Wednesdays is just so he has a chance to check in with you and see how you’re doing. You don’t need to spend the whole period together, but please do at least check in. The other thing on there is that on Friday mornings, you have lessons with me. Those lessons will be with the other Hufflepuff First Years only, and it’s just a chance for you to get extra help with—” She was cut off by a sharp knock on the door. Professor Kobayashi and Headmistress Hillstone exchanged a glance. 

“Come in,” Headmistress Hillstone called. A young woman in dark purple robes came in, quickly shut the door behind her, and strode to the table. 

“I need to—I mean, Teddy Lupin needs to talk to you,” she said to Headmistress Hillstone and Professor Kobayashi. “Both of you. It's important.” 

“Right now?” Headmistress Hillstone raised an eyebrow. “We're talking to Scorpius right now.” The young woman looked at Scorpius for the first time, and her face darkened immediately. 

“Scorpius _Malfoy_?” She said his name like it was something vile. “Paloma said you were seeing the _Hufflepuffs_.” 

“Scorpius is a Hufflepuff,” Professor Kobayashi said coolly. 

“ _What_?” The young woman shrieked. “He’s a _Death Eater_! Need I remind you who killed my parents!?”

“ _Teddy_!” 

“Certainly not a boy who wasn’t even _alive_ when your parents died.” Headmistress Hillstone said, her voice like ice. The sound sent a chill down Scorpius’ spine. “Would you like to start that over?”

“Yeah, actually, I would.” The young woman looked straight at Scorpius, took a deep breath, and then said quickly, “I wish they'd let the dementors kiss every single member of your family.” Headmistress Hillstone was up in a flash. Scorpius wasn’t even sure he’d seen her move. She was just suddenly _there_ , shorter than the young woman but somehow still looming over her.

“Outside. _Now_.” While Scorpius was sure he would have crumpled into a heap if it was _him_ she was talking to like that—as it was, he was already shrinking himself down in his chair—the young woman stood her ground, looking just as angry and defiant as before. 

“Julia,” Professor Kobayashi said warningly. 

“And drop the disguise,” Headmistress Hillstone added. A look Scorpius couldn’t decipher flashed across the young woman’s face. 

“ _Julia_ ,” Professor Kobayashi said more firmly. Headmistress Hillstone snapped her head back to Professor Kobayashi. For a second, Scorpius thought she was going to say something, but she closed her eyes, and her expression softened. “Teddy, sit down,” Professor Kobayashi continued. She waved her wand and a chair appeared beneath the young woman. She sat down. Headmistress Hillstone did the same. “Deep breaths.” Teddy, the young woman, took a few slow breaths. “Now, what's going on? This cruelty is not you, Teddy.”

“I'm not saying anything in front of _him_ ,” Teddy, the young woman, said. 

“I assure you Scorpius is the first student I've met this year who hasn't given me even one bit of Hogwarts gossip,” Headmistress Hillstone said. 

“Arav used a spell to block out all the sound after I got sorted so I could only hear Jessica and Col,” Scorpius said. “You could do that so I can't hear you.” 

“ _Col_?” Teddy said. “You're friends with _Col_?” 

“Teddy,” Headmistress Hillstone said warningly. Teddy looked at her and let out a breath, dropping her shoulders as she did.

“There's no need for that, Scorpius,” Professor Kobayashi said. She looked back at Teddy. “I trust Scorpius as well. What's going on?” Teddy’s eyes flashed from face to face to face. 

“Tea?” Headmistress Hillstone asked Teddy. She nodded. Headmistress Hillstone conjured a cup, poured some tea in, and handed it to Teddy. Teddy sipped at the tea, and they sat in silence for a few minutes. 

“It's not a disguise,” Teddy said quietly when she had finished her tea. 

“What do you mean?” Professor Kobayashi asked. Teddy looked between her and Headmistress Hillstone and then sighed loudly and buried her head on the table. Headmistress Hillstone and Professor Kobayashi exchanged confused looks. 

“You're supposed to get this,” Teddy said, her voice muffled by the table. She lifted her head back up. “I expected this from all the straight people I know, but you're, you know—”

“Are you _gay_ , Teddy?” Headmistress Hillstone said. She stifled a laugh. “Merlin, Teddy, that’s not—”

“No, I'm—I mean, I _am_ , but the kind of gay where I like _girls_.”

“Er, Teddy—”

“I _know_ what the word means. _I’m_ a girl.” 

“Oh,” Headmistress Hillstone said slowly. Teddy dropped her head back on the table. "Oh, sweetie." Headmistress Hillstone slid her chair over and put her arm over her shoulders. Teddy leaned into her shoulder. “We’ll figure this out.”

“What do I do?” Teddy asked, sounding helpless. 

“Do you have a different name you'd like me to use this afternoon?” Professor Kobayashi said. Teddy looked up at her. 

“I've been thinking about Dora,” she said, “after my mum.”

“Dora is a nice name,” Scorpius said. She stared at Scorpius. Scorpius, unsure if he’d done something wrong, looked to Headmistress Hillstone, who just smiled kindly at him. Dora sighed and laid her head on Headmistress Hillstone’s shoulder again.

“I just wish I knew what my parents would have named me.” Everyone was silent for a moment. 

“What about your grandmother?” Professor Kobayashi suggested. “Or Harry and Ginny?” 

“I haven’t told anyone yet. Not even Victoire.”

“Okay,” she said. “Let’s make a plan for right now. Professor Hillstone and I still need to finish with Scorpius here and then meet with a few more students before lunch. If you’d like, you and I can talk more at lunch.”

“I can be free at lunch too,” Headmistress Hillstone said. “Whoever you’d rather talk to.”

“Both of you?” Dora said hopefully.

“Yes, of course.” Then she added, “Dora.” Dora smiled at the name. “You can meet us back here at lunch.”

“Do you have somewhere to go until then?” Professor Kobayashi asked. 

“Yeah, I have to find Victoire,” Dora said. “She has to hear it from me.”

“It'll be okay,” Headmistress Hillstone said. 

“I should go.” She closed her eyes and took a deep breath but didn't move.  

“I believe you still owe Scorpius an apology.” Dora opened her eyes and stared up at Headmistress Hillstone. “Yes, really. Go on, sit up.” She pushed Dora off her shoulder gently, and Dora sighed then looked at Scorpius. 

“I'm sorry.” 

“It's fine,” Scorpius muttered. 

“You can do better than that, Dora,” Headmistress Hillstone said. Dora sighed dramatically, but she looked at Scorpius more sincerely this time. 

“I'm sorry I called you a Death Eater, and I'm sorry I said they should have given your family the dementor’s kiss. That was cruel of me.” She looked at Headmistress Hillstone, who did not smile. Dora sighed and looked back at Scorpius. “I'm glad you're in Hufflepuff.” 

“Thanks,” Scorpius muttered. He looked down at the floor, just ready to be done with everyone debating whether he was okay or not. 

“You're excused, Dora,” Headmistress Hillstone said. Scorpius heard her stand up then walk from the room. 

“Scorpius—” Professor Kobayashi began, but Scorpius cut her off.

“I'd like to go if that's okay. I mean, if we're done. I understand my schedule.” 

“You cannot talk to anyone else about the conversation we just had,” she said. “Do you understand that?”

“Yes.”

“Good. I have a book for you.” She reached down along the side of her chair again and pulled out a green, leather-bound book with silver lettering. Scorpius took it and read the cover: _Slytherin: the Unsung Heroes_. “You might find some people you know in there.” She winked. 

“Thank you,” Scorpius said. “Can I go now?” She nodded and Scorpius stood up and turned to leave. 

“Scorpius,” Headmistress Hillstone said. He looked back at her. “I hope you have a wonderful first day of classes tomorrow.” She smiled. Scorpius smiled back and returned to the Great Hall, eager to play another game of Squawkball and forget about the way Dora said his name. 


	10. Burned

“Absolutely not,” Daphne said. “Leave my daughter out of this.” Her parents and Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy had spent the last hour in her and Marcus’ living room, explaining their concerns about their grandson: The boy was too soft, they said, and Hufflepuff, with its insistence on being nice and coddling everyone, would only make him softer. He needed to be prepared for the real world. Hufflepuff also didn’t offer him the opportunities for networking that would be crucial to his future beyond Hogwarts. After all, how could he expect to soar like a phoenix if he lived with pygmy puffs? Even _Gryffindor_ , they conceded, would be better in that regard. And most of all, Scorpius belonged with people who understood his background, people who would not put him on trial for crimes before he was even born because they, too, came from families who had chosen the losing side in the war. He belonged in Slytherin, they insisted. Daphne was concerned about all these things too, of course, but she had promised her sister to support Scorpius’ placement in Hufflepuff, despite her own misgivings, and Astoria always came first. She owed Astoria that much.

Lucius had gone to the school to have Scorpius moved to Slytherin despite Astoria and Draco explicitly telling him not to. The way Lucius told it, the Headmistress responded by telling Lucius to stick his wand somewhere rude after he politely explained the need for the move. The way Astoria told it, Lucius had stormed in, wand drawn, and threatened Hillstone in order to have Scorpius moved, and she had simply told him no. The truth was probably somewhere in between, Daphne thought. Whatever had really happened though, Lucius was sure he knew what was best for Scorpius, and Hillstone, apparently, was what stood in the way of that. Lucius wanted to find a way to blackmail her. If Astoria were here, Daphne thought, she would roll her eyes so hard they’d never leave the back of her skull. Daphne wasn’t one to argue with her sister’s in-laws or especially her own parents, but she drew the line at Lucius’ suggestion that they use her daughter to dig up dirt on the Headmistress.

“Daphne,” her mother said, “this is a _family _matter.”__

“Family?” Marcus scoffed. “The last time Lucius dragged _family_ into one of his personal vendettas, things did not turn out so well for Draco. Artemis wouldn’t find anything on Hillstone that’s not already in the _Prophet_ anyway. If opening up Hogwarts to foreigners who don’t even speak _English_ didn’t cost her her job, you’re not going to find something that will. The governors love her.”

“I just don’t trust that woman,” Lucius said darkly. “Everyone has secrets.”

“Merlin, Lucius, is this about Scorpius or your pride?” Daphne said, feeling exasperated. If she were honest, she actually liked the Headmistress. Even if she had some strong disagreements on certain decisions Hillstone made, Daphne had never had any real problems with her. “The _Hat_ put Scorpius in Hufflepuff.” 

“But she can move him,” Narcissa said. 

“She’s not going to move Scorpius when Draco and Astoria insist on letting him stay there,” Marcus said. 

“Draco and Astoria won’t listen to reason,” Daphne’s mother said. “We have to do what’s best for Scorpius since his own parents won’t.” 

“Fine, whatever,” Daphne said. “Just leave Artemis out of it. And I’m staying out, too. I don’t like it either, but I am not going behind Astoria’s back.”

“So you’re siding with _her_.” _She’s your daughter!_ Daphne wanted to scream back, but she didn’t. Astoria would have, but Astoria wasn’t here, and that was the problem: it was a family meeting missing two crucial members. 

“Please don’t do this, mother,” Daphne said quietly. “I’m not picking sides. Just leave us out.” Her mother huffed loudly but did not push further, much to Daphne’s relief. Instead, she stood up, said a clipped goodbye, and vanished through the fireplace. Lucius and Narcissa stood as well.

“Don’t do this,” Daphne said.

“I have to do what’s best for my grandson,” Lucius said.

“You’re just pushing Draco away. I know you don’t want to be like Astoria and my mother, but I can’t see this ending any different if you go behind his and Astoria’s backs like this. Draco will never forgive you if you hurt Scorpius again.” Lucius’ nose flared angrily at the last word, but he didn’t say anything. “Artemis can help him make friends with the Slytherins.”

“I have to put Scorpius first,” he said. “If that means losing my son—” He sighed and shook his head. Daphne was taken aback. Lucius Malfoy, a man who had, in nineteen years, never once shown any signs that he recognised that his actions had nearly cost his son his life—or at least that the emotional damage done to Draco in the war was not simply because their side had lost—that man almost looked _vulnerable_. It was frightening. He took a fistful of floo powder and disappeared in a burst of green flames.

“We’ll leave you out of it,” Narcissa said as she reached for the powder after him.

“Narcissa,” Daphne pleaded. “You can’t seriously believe this is the right answer.” The other woman stopped, hand hovering over the powder, and looked at Daphne sadly.

“I don’t know, Daphne.” 

“Talk to Draco.”

“You know he won’t listen. He’s already lost. You know that just as well as I do.”

“Astoria didn’t take your son from you, Narcissa. Lucius burned that bridge himself.” Marcus sniggered, and Daphne shot him a dark look. Narcissa stiffened, grabbed a fistful of floo powder, and disappeared into green flames. 

“Really, Daph?” Marcus laughed. “ _Burned_ that bridge? Astoria is finally rubbing off on you.” He grinned approvingly, and Daphne couldn’t help but laugh, though she tried to look stern.

“I was getting somewhere with her.”

“Yeah, like Narcissa could stop Lucius. Hillstone hurt his pride. There’s no sense trying to reason with him now.”

“He’s worried about Scorpius.”

“Right, sure.

“We all are.”

Marcus laughed. “I’m not. The kid is a wimp. Slytherin would tear him apart. He’s far better off with the other wimps in Hufflepuff.” Daphne just shook her head. “So are you going to tell them?”

“Tell who?”

“Draco and Astoria.”

“Merlin, no.” 

“Good,” he laughed, and he left.  

There was no way this could end well for anyone, Daphne thought. Not for her, not for Lucius and Narcissa, not for her parents, not for Astoria and Draco, and certainly not for Scorpius. Even after all these years, Lucius still expected the world to bow to his feet and still assumed that he alone could know what was best for his grandson. Lucius was almost understandable though. Her mother, on the other hand—Daphne knew it was about Astoria. It always was. She didn’t care about Scorpius; she just wanted to make Astoria pay for what she had done. Daphne had been her mother’s pawn before, and she knew in the end, it was Scorpius, not Astoria, who would pay. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Will Lucius find the blackmail material he's looking for? If he does, will Hillstone give in? 
> 
> If you're anxious to know if Hillstone even /has/ anything worth blackmailing about, I have started posting some of Hillstone's backstory, starting with her days at Hogwarts, after receiving some strong encouragement to tell her story. Scorpius' story will stand on its own without the backstory, and there are some spoilers for Scorpius' story there, but you could just as easily argue that Scorpius' story is full of spoilers for Hillstone's, so there's really no right or wrong answer to what to read when. You can find the story on my author page, or just go to bit.ly/JHillstone to be taken straight to the first chapter.


	11. The Lake

Scorpius woke up to darkness, his clothes stuck to him with sweat and his heart pounding in his chest. He was in his four-poster bed. Safe, he told himself. He tried to push away the nightmare that had woken him. Someone was snoring. The light of the moon shone in through the windows. Scorpius quietly slid out of bed and crept to one of the windows. The moon looked full, and Scorpius wondered if it was true that there were werewolves in the forest.

Scorpius’ stomach grumbled loudly. He quickly checked to see if anyone had heard, but the others in his dorm were all fast asleep. In the dim light of the moon though, he saw something on his night stand. He crept back and picked it up: a plate from dinner. He felt a rush of gratitude toward whoever had put it there and ate quickly. They'd been given a break from Induction in the afternoon, and Scorpius had decided to take a nap, only he had clearly overslept. Paloma had said alumni were going to talk to them after lunch about jobs or something like that. Scorpius didn't think it mattered that he'd missed that. He didn't need to decide that until fifth year. Scorpius wondered if that's why Dora had been there in the morning, that maybe she was one of the alumni coming to talk to them, and he decided he was glad to have slept through it.

Scorpius was awake now though. There was no way he’d be able to fall back asleep, so he decided he would go to the common room to read. With some difficulty, he switched into some clean robes, grabbed a few books from his trunk, and crept out of the dorm.

The common room was empty. According to the grandfather clock beside one of the windows, it was three in the morning. Scorpius sat down on one of the sofas and looked at the books he had grabbed in the darkness: his charms textbook, the third book in his favourite series about a dragon and an owl who were best friends, and the book Professor Kobayashi had given him. He frowned at the last one but flipped it open and read from the top of the page he'd landed on:

> was the first person to discover the Dark Lord’s horcurxes. Black defected from the Death Eaters, writing, “I face death in the hope that when you meet your match you will be mortal once more.”

Scorpius stopped. _Black_. He flipped back a page to find the full name. _Regulus Arcturus Black_. He had never heard the name before, but he knew his grandmother’s maiden name was Black. Black was an old pureblood name.

> Long before Hermione Granger would become a champion of house elf rights, a young Death Eater defected to defend them. At the cost of being killed by his own closest friends, known only to history as just another foolish child hoodwinked by the Dark Lord’s promises, Black’s defiance played a crucial yet forgotten role in the war. Only through the memory of his house-elf Kreacher and the writings Black left behind has his true nature been revealed. In his last known writing, he speaks of his plans and his commitment to working alone in order to protect those around him:
> 
> _I am too far into this world to fight from the outside as my brother does. Sirius is the only one who could understand, but I have long since lost my brother’s trust. I cannot turn to him now, as we fight on opposite sides of this war, forever enemies. Still, I fear for his life when I am discovered. He may be accused of planting the seeds of this defection in me, making him even more of a target than he already is. No, I must work alone. Not even Kreacher can know what it is I do. The Dark Lord will destroy me for this, but if I can destroy his horcrux, he will be mortal again. How poetic would it be if I were to destroy this horcrux, to defeat the Dark Lord from within, and my own brother, never knowing my sacrifice, defeated the Dark Lord, now mortal, from outside? Mine is a story that will be lost to history though, just as I shall soon be. I hope only for the strength to complete my task and for Kreacher’s safety. Let him never know the fear I feel now, knowing the Dark Lord shall have me destroyed in the worst way._

Scorpius didn’t stop reading until he had finished the chapter. Black had become a Death Eater when he was just sixteen, the same age as Scorpius’ father when he joined. The book said no one knew for sure who killed him, but it speculated that he was most likely tortured and killed by the friends he had grown up with, fellow Death Eaters, as that was what normally happened to defectors. Black had even, years before, written in admiration about the Dark Lord ordering other Death Eaters to torture and kill their friend who defected in order to prove their own loyalty. Scorpius couldn’t imagine ever admiring that.

Scorpius shut the book. He felt weird. Black was probably related to him, and he had never heard of him at all. Black had died in secret, alone, murdered by friends, forgotten even by his own family. Was that the world his family came from? Was that the world _he_ came from?

Scorpius dropped the books and ran. He didn't know where he was going; he just ran. His footsteps echoed through the quiet castle. Portraits stirred and shushed him, but he ignored them. As he rushed toward them, the castle’s entrance doors unlocked themselves and creaked open just enough for Scorpius to slip out into the fresh air. He kept running.

Finally, he dropped to his knees beside the lake. He waited until he had caught his breath, and then he looked out at its surface. It was smooth and still, the light of the almost-full moon reflected on its surface. He just stared at it for a few minutes, entranced by the sight.

Maybe it was the moonlight, maybe it was adrenaline of being out of the castle at night, maybe it was whatever had made him run to begin with, but something compelled Scorpius into the lake. He stripped down to his under garments on the lakeside and stepped in. He swam to the middle of the lake and then floated on his back, staring up at the moon. It was peaceful there.

Suddenly, something grabbed his leg and pulled him beneath the surface. He choked on a mouthful of lake water and tried to yank himself free. Something grabbed his other leg, and he was whisked deep into the lake, fast. He could hear music, but it sounded dark and tense, panicked even. He opened his eyes and saw what had grabbed him: Selkies.

“Let me go!” He mouthed as they sped him deeper and deeper into the lake. He could feel his lungs starting to burn for want of air. They shook their heads angrily and continued pulling him. The music was growing louder, and Scorpius guessed they must be headed toward the Selkie village at the bottom of the lake.

“A boy!?” A voice sang angrily as the village sped into view. Another Selkie rushed from the village toward them. Scorpius was feeling too dizzy to hear what was said. It sounded like an argument, but everything was blurring. Scorpius felt himself being yanked along but he couldn't tell which direction any more. He blacked out.

 

Scorpius woke up on the lake shore, shivering and gasping for air. His lungs burned, and he hurriedly found his clothes and put them on. The castle doors were still open, and he slipped back inside, this time being careful to move quietly. Much to his relief, he made it back without getting caught. Scorpius grabbed his books from the common room on his way up and then shut himself in his four-poster. He stared wide-eyed at the panel over his bed, a torrent of questions flooding his mind, but exhaustion soon overtook him, and he fell back asleep.


	12. A Rose By Any Other Name

“It's our first day, c’mon, Scorp!” Scorpius groaned and opened his eyes to see who was shaking him awake: Justin. “Aha! There's the sleepyhead! Gooooood morning!” Justin grinned.

“Morning,” Scorpius mumbled, burying his face in his pillow as a groggy smile spread across his own face.

“C’mon, we're all walking down together!” Justin tugged at Scorpius’ arm. 

“Okay, okay, I'm coming.” Justin let go as Scorpius rolled clumsily out of bed. 

Before he knew it, Scorpius was rushing off to Herbology with the rest of the Hufflepuff first years, his stomach full and his body finally awake.

“Scorpius! Hey, wait up!” someone called just as they made it to the doors. Scorpius, along with his new friends, turned. James Potter jogged down the Gryffindor table and stopped in front of Scorpius. James opened his mouth to speak, but Omar and Jessica stepped in front of Scorpius, and he quickly shut it.

“What do _you_ want?” Jessica said coldly.

“Can I talk to Scorpius for a minute?” James said. “Without all of Hufflepuff house glaring at me?” He crossed his arms impatiently. 

“It’s fine,” Scorpius said quietly to his friends. “I’m fine.” They hesitated but stepped back. James watched them until they had stepped far enough away for his liking.

“Merlin, I thought Hufflepuff was supposed to be the nice house,” he said. Scorpius didn’t laugh. “Sorry,” James said quickly. “I'm sure your friends are nice.”

“I have to go to Herbology,” Scorpius said.

James sighed and looked at Scorpius uncomfortably. “I just wanted to say—the other day—Teddy told me what other people have been saying—I didn’t mean—Merlin, this is hard.” James let out a frustrated groan and buried his face in his hands. “I’m sorry I was such a git.” He looked back up at Scorpius, who didn’t know what to say. “I hate people treating me like I’m my dad. I’m like a thousand times cooler than him minimum. I just got scared, yeah? Shoulda just listened to Roxy. Instead, I had Teddy having a go at me for ‘bullying first years’ and telling me I’ll never be a Prefect like that. As if I want to be a Prefect.” James’ speaking was picking up speed at he went. “You met him though, right? He’s practically my brother. Not officially, but his parents died, so mine basically adopted him. He’s dating my cousin Victoire, and it’s _weird_. My little sister Lily hopes they’ll get married so he can officially be family, but I figure he already is family, so—oh, sorry, right,” he said awkwardly. “I was apologising. Er, sorry about calling you a Death Eater and all that.” James tried a grin. “So are we cool, kid?” 

Scorpius shrugged. “I don’t know.”

“Oh.” James looked at the ground.

“Can I go to Herbology now?” 

“Oh, yeah, of course,” James said. “Sorry.”

“Poor Teddy,” Jessica said as they walked off to Herbology. “Imagine having _him_ for a brother.” Scorpius shrugged. He was preoccupied with the thought that Dora—for surely who else could James have meant when he said Teddy?—had, apparently, defended him to James. _Why_?

 

“Everyone please pair up with someone not in your house,” Professor Longbottom said at the start of Herbology. The Hufflepuffs exchanged worried glances. “If you can’t find partners on your own, I’ll pair you up myself. Go on then, Hufflepuffs, find a Slytherin. Slytherins, find a Hufflepuff.” The Hufflepuffs and Slytherins looked at each other uncertainly for a moment, and then everyone started to move.

“Malfoy.” A girl in Slytherin robes slid right in front of Scorpius. He recognised her by the bushy red hair: Rose Weasley, James’ cousin.

“Hi,” Scorpius said awkwardly, leaning back a bit to get space.

“Partners?”

“Sure.” 

After a few minutes, everyone except one Slytherin had found a partner, so Professor Longbottom put them with Ashley and a Slytherin she’d partnered with. He instructed them to ask their partners a couple of questions that he wrote in the air with his wand, and the students began getting to know their partners.

“Rose Weasley,” Rose said. She held out her hand, and Scorpius shook it.

“Scorpius,” he said. He looked back at the questions and read the next one aloud: “What did you eat at breakfast today?”

Rose raised an eyebrow. “Eggs and toast.”

“Beans, hash browns, bacon, and mushroom. If you could have dinner with anyone in the world, witch, wizard, or muggle, who would it be?”

“Minister for Magic, I suppose. You?”

“Dunno. A centaur, maybe. Does that count?”

“I don’t think so. It says witch, wizard, or muggle. It’s fine though. What would you like to be when you grow up?”

“No idea, maybe a singer.”

“A _singer_?” Rose giggled. “Go on then, sing something.”

Scorpius shook his head. “What about you?”

“Minister for Magic, or maybe my mum’s job. She’s Deputy Head of Department of Magical Law Enforcement.” 

They kept going through the questions, and Scorpius wondered what they had to do with Herbology. He didn’t mind though. Rose was nice. She seemed a little terse, but not in a mean way, and she hadn’t said a thing about his family or his name, which Scorpius appreciated. 

“What was the last dream you had?” Scorpius read.

Rose shrugged. “I don’t remember my dreams. The last I remember was ages ago. I dreamt I was a grindlylow, but I don’t really remember anything else. You?”

“Last night, I dreamt that some Selkies pulled me to the bottom of the lake.”

“That’s weird. Were they trying to kill you?”

“I don’t know.” He tried to remember the dream more clearly, and that was when it hit him: “Actually, I don’t think it was a dream. I was floating in the lake, looking up at the moon when they grabbed me.”

“What?” she hissed quietly. “What were you doing in the _lake_ at night? What were you even doing out of _bed_?”

Scorpius shrugged. “I don’t really remember. But they pulled me down, all the way to their village, and another Selkie started yelling at them—well, not yelling, more like angry singing—but I couldn’t breathe the whole time, and I guess I blacked out. One of them must have taken me back up because I woke up on the shore.”

“You’re lying.”

“What? Why would I—”

“Okay,” Professor Longbottom called out to the class, cutting him off. “Hopefully you’ve all had a bit of a chance now to get to know each other. We’re going to go around now, and I want you to introduce your partner to the rest of the class, okay? Say their name and something you learned about them.” One of the Slytherins’ raised his hand. “Yes, Mister—?”

“Anderson,” the boy said.

“Yes, Mister Anderson.”

“Professor Longbottom, no offense, sir, but what does this have to do with Herbology?”

Professor Longbottom smiled. “Thank you, Mister Anderson. That is an excellent question. You see, Herbology can be a very dangerous subject, so we all need to be able to work together in this class. When you finish at Hogwarts and go out into the world, you’re also going to need to know how to work with people from other houses, so why not start learning now? That’s my philosophy anyway.” 

Another Slytherin raised her hand. Professor Longbottom indicated that she could speak.

“Sir, is it true you were in Dumbledore’s Army?”

“Yes, that’s true.”

“Why are you teaching Herbology then, professor?” someone else asked.

“Is it true you were supposed to be the one to defeat He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named?”

“Did you really kill fifteen Death Eaters with one curse?”

“I heard you're an animagus, sir.”

“Yeah, professor, can’t you turn into a owl?”

“Sir—” Professor Longbottom waved his arms to quiet the class.

“Please,” Professor Longbottom said, “you can ask all your burning questions later. I teach Herbology because I enjoy the subject, and I enjoy teaching all of you. Now, I would love for each of you to introduce your partners, okay? Let’s start over here.” He pointed to where Omar and a Slytherin girl were sitting. Omar stood up, and they slowly went around the room, each person introducing another. Scorpius couldn’t remember any of their names; he was already having enough trouble remembering the names of everyone in his own house as it was. When they had finished, Professor Longbottom started to show them all some of the plants, in the greenhouse, and it was soon time for them to leave for their next class: Flying lessons.

Much to Scorpius’ relief, their flying instructor, Professor Arrow, did not make them intermingle with the Ravenclaws they had a Flying with. To Scorpius’ even greater relief, Karen Kim and the rest of Ravenclaws were all too preoccupied with Professor Arrow to notice Scorpius at all. 

“Can you _fly_?” Hiro asked Professor Arrow. It was a perfectly understandable question, Scorpius thought. After all, Professor Arrow was a house elf, and Scorpius had never heard of house elves flying. 

“Yes, of course,” Professor Arrow said in a high, squeaky voice. “ _Up_!” A very small broom that was on the ground beside him jumped into his outstretched hand. He mounted it, kicked off, and quickly shot fifty feet up in the air before coming back down to hover just above eye level. The class cheered. “Up until very recently, it was illegal for house elves to use broomsticks and other items designated for witches and wizards only, so we house elves developed our own ways of flying. Of course, legal or not, house elves throughout the centuries have always found ways around laws.” He grinned slyly. “Dobby the Elf wasn't the first abolitionist, after all.” Natasha’s hand shot up into the air. “Yes, Miss, ah—”

“Blackthorn, sir.”

“Miss Blackthorn, go ahead.”

“Are you paid a salary like the other teachers?” Natasha asked, speaking quickly. “Like the same as any other teacher? Does Professor Longbottom make more than you? I asked Professor Hillstone about the house elves in the kitchen, but—”

“Thank you for your concern, Miss Blackthorn. I assure you that you needn't worry about me or my pay.” Karen Kim’s hand shot up. “Yes, M—”

“Kim,” she said impatiently. “Are you going to teach us how to fly or not?” 

“Shut _up_ , Kim,” Sophie Iskikian, one of the Ravenclaws they'd met the other morning, hissed. Karen Kim shot a dark look at her. 

“Please, girls,” Professor Arrow squeaked. His face was stern. “I have been teaching for nearly twenty years, and I assure you, every single one of my students has left my course able to fly a broomstick. If you would all please allow me to teach, you will soon be flying with ease. Are you ready to pay attention then?” The class murmured their agreement, and Professor Arrow spent the rest of the class lecturing them about broom safety and showing them how to grip a broomstick. 

Scorpius tried to pay attention, but his eyes wandered across the grounds to the lake. Was it normal for Selkies to drag students down to the bottom of the lake? Scorpius doubted it. What had they wanted with him? The more he thought about it, the more it worried him. He needed to tell someone, but who? Certainly not his parents; they were already worried enough. Justin and Jessica were muggle-born, so they wouldn't know anything about Selkies. Omar’s and Zena’s families were both wizarding, but they hadn't gone to Hogwarts, so Scorpius doubted they would know anything about Hogwarts’ Selkies either. He would just worry his friends if he told any of them, and he needed to talk to someone who had grown up in this world, someone who would know about the Selkies. 

 

“Malfoy,” a familiar voice said as he walked into the Great Hall for lunch with the other Hufflepuffs. 

“Aren't you popular today, Scorpius?” Zena teased as they followed the sound to see who had called him. It was Rose Weasley, leaning coolly against the doorway. “I think she likes you,” Zena whispered. Scorpius felt his face burn. 

“Save me a seat,” Scorpius said. “I'll be over in a minute.” 

“You're in Hufflepuff,” Rose said flatly when the others had cleared off. 

“Er, yeah.” Scorpius had the feeling he wasn't going to like where this was going. 

“Why?”

“I don't know. The Hat just put me there.”

“Your whole family are Slytherins though.”

“What's that supposed to mean?” Scorpius growled. He was getting tired of everyone talking about his family, and he couldn't understand why she'd suddenly decided it mattered what house his family was in after everything had been fine all through Herbology. 

“Merlin, Malfoy, you don't need to get your knickers in a twist. _I’m_ in Slytherin, in case you haven't noticed.” She rolled her eyes. “First in my family, just like you in Hufflepuff. I just want to know _why_. Why am I in Slytherin? Why are you in Hufflepuff?”

“I like being in Hufflepuff,” Scorpius said firmly. “I don't care why the Hat put me there.”

“Well I don't like being in Slytherin. No one likes me. My parents put a lot of their families in Azkaban, and they all think I'm just there to do the same to them.” She looked over to the Slytherin table, watching them. “I need you to sit with me.”

“What?”

She looked back at him. “At dinner or something. You know, act like we're friends. Your name has credibility.”

“Is that why you're talking to me then? My name?” Scorpius could feel anger starting to build in his chest. “That's all you care about then, right? I'll tell my grandfather to write you a letter, how's that? Then you can have an official Death Eater endorsement to win over the Slytherins. I bet you'll be best friends.”

“I don't want anything to do with your blood supremacist grandfather,” Rose spat. “Get over yourself, Malfoy. I talked to you because I thought you seemed decent, not a git like the rest of your Death Eater family. I don't care about your stupid name, I’m just tired of people treating me like I'm out to kill their families just because I'm a Weasley and thought maybe you'd understand.” She glared at him, and Scorpius glared right back. He was angry, but it was because she was right. Somehow, he was feeling sorry for her, and he didn't want to. For a few tense moments, they glared at each other. He wished he knew a good jinx to use on her. 

“Fine,” he spat. Or tried to, but his anger was already slipping. “I'll sit with you at dinner.” She grinned suddenly. 

“You're the best, Malfoy.” She hugged him—Scorpius was too bewildered to return the gesture—and kissed his cheek. “I owe you.” She winked and skipped off to the Slytherin table with a wave. Scorpius stood rooted to the spot, utterly confused. After a moment, he wiped his cheek with his sleeve and made his way over to his friends. Scorpius barely heard their teasing over the thought that had taken hold in his brain: if Rose Weasley owed him, then she was going to help him figure out why Selkies had nearly killed him last night. She clearly didn't like him enough to fret over him, and if anyone was going to know about Selkies, it was her. 


	13. Would Still Sting As Sharply

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is kind of a hot mess right now, but it's not almost 5am, and I should sleep, so just posting and hoping that when I reread whilst properly rested, it only needs minor fixes, not anything plot-changing. Thank you to you wonderful people who care about this story so much that it's totally worth being up so late to finish a chapter. <3

“Five points to Hufflepuff, Mister Ba!” Professor Stewart, the Potions Master, exclaimed cheerily. Omar ducked his head down to avoid all the eyes on him. “Proper shame you aren't in my house.” She winked, and Omar’s ears reddened. Omar had been the first to say something other than, “I don't know,” to the strange questions she’d be spouting off for the last twenty minutes, and she'd nearly jumped through the ceiling with excitement. “Now then, who else wants to earn their house points?” She paced through the seats, apparently searching for the next student to put on the spot.  “Miss Cohen,” she said, stopping in front of a Gryffindor girl across the aisle on Scorpius’ left. “Tell me, do you know about Felix Felicis?”

“No, professor,” the girl said quietly. 

“Ah, very well, I'll explain. Felix Felicis is a very powerful potion which makes the drinker incredibly lucky until the effect wears off. It is illegal in sport to ensure fairness. Now, my question for you, Miss Cohen, is this: if every player in a Quidditch match used Felix Felicis, would the match be fair?” 

“Er,” the girl said nervously. 

“There are no wrong answers here. I simply want you to consider the question. Would it be fair?”

“No?”

“Why not?”

“Because...because it's illegal?”

“Ah-ha!” Professor Stewart threw up an arm and grinned gleefully. “Take a point for answering, Miss Cohen, thank you.” She turned her focus back to the class and resumed sweeping through the aisles. “Surely the use of magic would provide an unfair advantage in a muggle sport such as rugby, yes?” The class was silent. “Please, I'm asking all of you. Would that be unfair?” A few students murmured agreement. “Would it then be unfair for a team of all witches and wizards to play rugby using magic?” She stopped in front of Hiro. “Mister Shimano, what do you think? Is it unfair?”

Hiro shrugged. “Not really?”

“And why do you think that?” Professor Stewart looked so gleeful, Scorpius thought she might start floating any second now. “What makes it fair?”

“Well, they're _all_ using magic, right? So it's even.”

“Take another point to Hufflepuff.” She spun back around. “Miss Cohen, what do you say to Mister Shimano? Do you agree or disagree with his answer?”

“Agree?” the girl said uncertainly. 

“You just said all players using Felix Felicis would be unfair. Is Mister Shimano’s case different? Has your position on your case changed? What do you think?”

“Er,” she said, looking around the room. Scorpius was just grateful it wasn't him being asked the weird questions. Justin’s hand suddenly shot up beside Scorpius

“Mister Carter-Cartwright!” Professor Stewart whisked over to their table and smiled down at Justin. “Go on then.”

“Well, it _is_ different, professor. Magic isn't against the rules of rugby.” He paused, but she nodded for him to go on. “You said that luck thing is against the rules of—of that thing you said.” He glanced sideways at Scorpius beside him, but continued. “Even if everyone broke the rule, that doesn't make it _fair_. But if it's witches and wizards playing rugby with magic, there’s nothing _against_ using magic in rugby, and they've all _agreed_ that it’s okay, right?”

“Thank you, Mister Carver-Cartwright, for that well thought out response. Take five points!” Justin looked over at Scorpius again and grinned excitedly. Scorpius grinned back and gave him a small thumbs up. “Now, I'm sure you all have your own opinions on the subject,” Professor Stewart said as she returned to sweeping around the room, “but for your homework, I'd like you to pick a different question.” She flicked her wand and a pile of sheets in her desk began distributing itself amongst the class. “You can pick one from this list, or you can come up with your own, whatever you're most interested in, and I want you to try to answer the question like we just did. Six and a half inches. There are no wrong answers. I just want to see you trying to think this through.” She had made her way back to the front just as the last piece of parchment floated into her free hand. She glanced down and started reading off questions quickly. “If you could save a life with a potion but in order to make it, you have to take the lives of other creatures, is it still ethical? Does a Beautification Potion only reinforce harmful beauty standards, or does it provide necessary relief from their impacts? Should a vegetarian refuse potions containing newt’s eyes? These are the questions with which any true Potion Master must grapple!” She shouted the last sentence dramatically, tossing her arms wildly like an exclamation point on the end of lecture. A small bang erupted from the end of her wand, and she jumped and swore loudly. “Sorry, sorry, got a bit carried away.” She smiled at the class again. “Remember to read through chapter one of your textbooks and be prepared to discuss next week!”

 

Scorpius’ head ached as he walked down to dinner with the rest of the Hufflepuff first years. They’d had a break after Potions, and he and the others in his house had sat in the common room, trying to figure out what to do for Stewart’s assignment. Scorpius had managed about four inches about why stealing hairs for Polyjuice Potion was bad, but he had ran out of things to say and just stared at the parchment, willing his brain to come up with something.

“Malfoy,” a familiar voice said as they neared the Great Hall. Scorpius looked over his shoulder and jumped straight into Hiro when he saw Rose Weasley right behind him.

“Son of a banshee!” Hiro swore, and then saw Rose. “Merlin, Weasley, where did you come from? Isn’t your house in the dungeons?”

“I was in the library.” She looked at Scorpius. “Walk with me?” She stopped walking, and Scorpius followed suit. A moment later, the rest of the Hufflepuffs had stopped as well, all eyes on Rose and Scorpius.

“Hey, why don’t you come sit with us?” Jessica offered. Rose paled. 

“I want Scorpius to meet my friends,” she said.

“You can bring them over, too,” Justin said.

“Yeah, Hufflepuff takes everyone,” Omar said.

“Even Slytherins,” Zena added.

“And their kids,” Hiro said with a wink to Scorpius. To be perfectly honest, Scorpius liked their plan much better. Going over to the Slytherin table was not something he was particularly excited about. Artemis would be there, and he hadn’t talked to her since Platform 9 ¾, so he didn’t know if she would still even talk to him, now that he was in Hufflepuff. And there were worse people in Slytherin he didn’t want to think about at all. People who he suspected might be even worse to a Weasley in their house.

“I want to see my cousin,” Scorpius lied. “I haven’t seen her since we left London.”

“Have her come sit—” Ashley started.

“Artemis wouldn’t,” Jessica said, staring at Scorpius liked she’d just understood something. “It’s okay, Scorpius. We’ll see you after dinner then?”

“Yeah, definitely.”

“C’mon,” she said to the other Hufflepuffs, and they walked off. Rose was silent as they waited until the others were far enough away, and then she led Scorpius into the Great Hall and to the Slytherin table. To Scorpius’ relief, he saw a couple other students who weren’t in Slytherin scattered along the table. Not as many from other houses as the Hufflepuff table, but then Hufflepuff table was the most colourful because everyone was welcome.

“ _Malfoy_?” an older Slytherin Scorpius didn’t recognise said as they sat down. The other Slytherins near them turned and stared at him. “The bloody hell are you doing here? I thought you were in Hufflepuff.” 

“He’s with me,” Rose huffed. The Slytherin burst out laughing.

“Merlin, a Weasley and a Malfoy,” the girl beside him said, “what is this world coming to?”

“I think it’s cool,” the first year girl Scorpius had sat beside said. “Pass the roast potatoes, Weasley.” Rose did as she was asked, and the other students returned to their own conversations. Scorpius breathed a quiet sigh of relief. 

“Who else did you have today?” the girl asked Scorpius as she took the potatoes.

“Flying with Professor Arrow and Potions with Professor Stewart,” Scorpius said.

“Arrow? Isn’t he the house-elf?” She jerked her head toward the staff table, and Scorpius scanned the tables until he saw Professor Arrow, who must have been sitting on something very tall to be able to reach the table. He was deep in conversation with a teacher he didn’t recognise.

“What’s it matter if he’s a house elf?” Rose said, her nose in the air.

“I mean, I don’t mind it, but how’s a house-elf supposed to teach flying?” The girl looked back at Scorpius. “So can he fly?”

“Yeah,” Scorpius said. “He’s brilliant. Almost as good as my mum.” The girl whistled.

“Singh, by the way. Lex Singh.” She held out her hand, and Scorpius shook it. “So what’re you doing here anyway? Weasley recruited you to make her look good or something?”

“Malfoy is my _friend_ ,” Rose said.

“That why you call him by his family name?” Rose opened her mouth to snap back, but Lex cut her off. “Chill, Weasley. I’m on your side. Just wondering if the poor kid knows you’re using him, that’s all.” 

“I am _not_ using him!” Rose said, her voice shrill. Lex shrugged, and Scorpius had the distinct impression that she was enjoying Rose’s reaction. 

“You’re in Slytherin, Weasley, not Gryffindor. No need to pretend you’re all noble or whatever.” Just then, something hit the back of Scorpius’ head and pushed him face first into his plate.

“Hey, Scourge,” Artemis said. “Move over, weasel.” She shoved Rose over and sat herself in the space she created between them. “You’ve got a bit of food on your face, Scourge,” Artemis said. “Just there.” She gestured to indicate his whole face.

“Thanks,” Scorpius muttered, wiping his face.

“There’s a spell for that, you know.”

“I know.”

“All you gotta do is say—”

“ _I know_.”

“Scourgify!” Artemis flicked her wand, and the food disappeared from Scorpius’ face. That was new. Artemis never actually _did_ the spell for him, just teased him for not being able to do it. She threw her arm over his shoulder and tousled his hair with her other hand the way her father often did. “So what’s my favourite little blood traitor doing over here? Looking to get moved to Slytherin?”

“You know you’re not allowed to say that.”

“I don’t see your mum anywhere, Scourge. Now, c’mon, what are you doing here with the weasel? She’s like a _double_ blood traitor: first she’s a weasel, and then she turns on the weasels. Can’t tell if that makes her super traitorous or not traitorous at all.” Artemis shrugged. Rose’s nose twitched angrily. 

“Rose is my friend,” Scorpius said, and Artemis howled with laugher. 

“Your poor father is going to die of horror and embarrassment when he finds out.” And with that, she stood back up and yanked Rose back over next to Scorpius. “See ya, Scourge.” She slammed his face into his plate once more and skipped off. 

“Who the—” Lex began to say.

“My cousin,” Scorpius said, wiping his face off again. “Sorry. She’s not normally like that. It’s just because she’s a Prefect now.” 

“That’s not how you treat your own family,” Lex said. “Here.” She grabbed Scorpius’ chin and wiped his face with her napkin. 

The rest of dinner was, thankfully, uneventful. A couple other first years introduced themselves, and they all exchanged stories about their first day of classes. Scorpius was surprised at how nice they all seemed. He had expected the Slytherins to all be more, well, like his extended family. Nonetheless, he was relieved when Lex announced that she wanted to head out, and he managed to use it as his excuse to leave too.

“She is using you, you know,” Lex said as they walked along the tables.

“I know,” Scorpius said with a shrug. “I don’t mind helping.”

Lex laughed. “Merlin, you are a Hufflepuff.”

“I guess so.” The walked through the doors in silence, but Lex stopped Scorpius before they should have parted ways.

“Weasley probably wants to say goodnight,” she said. 

“Yeah, I have to talk to her anyway.” Neither said a word until Rose walked out of the Great Hall, her hands behind her back.

“See ya, Malfoy,” Lex said when she saw Rose, and she disappeared off toward the dungeons.

“Malf—Scorpius,” Rose said as she planted herself firmly in front of him. She smiled, and he smiled back. “Here, for you. I heard it’s your favourite.” She pulled her hand from behind her back and—

Scorpius screamed and knocked her hand away, sending the rose she held out flying across the room. He felt his chest constricting, and he stumbled backwards, falling to the ground hard. Rose was saying something, but he couldn’t make sense of the sounds. His face was wet. He needed to tell her something, needed to tell her to run, but he couldn’t get the words out. Someone grabbed him—it had to be Rose, he thought—and started shaking him. He could hear laughter. Horrible, gleeful laughter, echoing through every corner of his brain. 

_Inhale_ , he heard Jessica’s voice whisper. He breathed in. _Exhale_. He wondered if she was there or just in his head. _Inhale_. Whoever was holding him left go. Someone else grabbed him, pulling him up by his armpits. _Exhale._ He was led somewhere—he didn’t dare open his eyes to see where—and pushed gently into a chair. _Inhale_. The awful laughter was fading, and now Scorpius could hear voices. It sounded like arguing. _Exhale_. His heart rate was slowing, and his brain started putting the sounds together. _Inhale._

“I didn’t know he was going to freak out!” Rose shrieked. 

“Well, you sure aren’t helping any by screaming, Weasley.” _Hiro?_ Scorpius’ eyes flew open. Hiro and Rose were standing in front of him, inches apart, wands out. They were sitting in the same room he’d sat in yesterday, the same chamber they sat in to await sorting, and the door was shut. _Exhale._ “If you want to actually help, you could go get Jessica. She knew some muggle stuff that helped him last time.” 

“Don’t!” Scorpius blurted. They whipped their heads to look at him. “I just—I’m fine. You don’t need to worry her.” Hiro grabbed a chair and sat down next to Scorpius.

“Hey, you okay?” 

“Whose idea was it?” Scorpius asked Rose, ignoring Hiro. He knew he shouldn’t, but he had more important problems to deal with first.

“What?” Rose said. 

“The rose.” Scorpius’ anxiety was making him impatient. “Whose idea was it?” Rose’s face paled.

“O-one of the older students said—”

“Who was it, Rose?” Scorpius was nearly shrieking now, fresh tears burning at the corners of his eyes. Hiro reached out and put a hand on his arm, but Scorpius flinched away from him. “Just say her name!”

“D-Dorothy Nott,” Rose said quietly. It was strange, Scorpius thought, the way the sound of her name could somehow simultaneously evoke raw, senseless terror and yet simply by being spoken, by the truth being confirmed and exposed, also bring him peace. He collapsed backward into the chair, letting his head fall so he was looking up at the ceiling. 

“Stay away from her,” he told the ceiling. 

“She’s in my house,” Rose said. “I don’t really have a choice.” Scorpius straightened back up.

“She’s not even in our year! She’s not in your classes, and you can sit with us or with your cousins or wherever for meals, and—”

“I have to sleep.”

“My parents were in Slytherin, so I _know_ you don’t sleep together with the other years.”

“I don’t even get why you’re freaking out. It was just a flower, Malfoy!”

“It was a _rose_ ,” Scorpius spat back. “From Dorothy Nott.”

“What? You don’t like my name now?”

“No, I don’t like—” Lost for words, Scorpius let out a cry of frustration that she couldn’t just understand, that she needed an _explanation_. “Dorothy Nott tried to _kill_ me,” he spat, “and she did it with a _rose_.”

“She tried to _what_?” Hiro said. 

“How do you kill someone with a _rose_?” Rose asked, rolling her eyes. Hiro shot her a dark look, and Scorpius found himself grateful to have been put in a house full of people who just simply _believed_ him. But Rose was still there, staring him down, demanding evidence, and Scorpius knew she wouldn’t trust him until he gave it to her, so he angrily yanked up his left sleeve and shoved his arm in her face. 

“You trick a little kid into picking up one of your father’s many Dark objects, and you laugh as its thorns tear up his arms toward his heart,” Scorpius said. Rose was silent as her eyes traced the white scars that climbed up his arm, forever marking his clash with Dark magic. If he had pulled his sleeve up far enough, she could have seen where they ended, just past the edge of his chest. “My parents came and apparated me to St. Mungo’s as soon as they heard me scream. The healers said a few more seconds, and it would have reached my heart and killed me.” The three of them were silent. Scorpius dropped his arm and pulled his sleeve back down.

“What was the point?” Hiro asked finally. “I mean of sending Weasley to give you a rose? Nott wasn’t trying to kill you, right?”

“If it was a cursed rose, it would have hurt Rose first. She was just trying to scare me.”

“Seems like it worked,” Rose said coldly.

“What is your issue?” Hiro spat. 

“I don’t have an _issue_ ,” Rose spat back. “I’m just saying it _worked_.” That was when Scorpius understood. Even though it had been years since he’d seen Nott, he knew how she worked; he was raised in a family full of people like her.

“She told you to make friends with me,” he said, the clarity keeping him calm.

“What?” Rose’s face turned almost as red as her hair. 

“You don’t have a choice because she’s _making_ you do things. But how?”

“Nott isn’t making me do anything,” Rose said defiantly. 

“Is she bullying you?”

“I’m _fine_.” No, bullying was too easy, too obvious, Scorpius thought. 

“They’re afraid to be your friend, aren’t they? The Slytherins in your year.” It was all coming to him now. “She doesn’t even have to do anything to you, just make everyone else a bit too afraid to be your friend, and then you don’t know why no one will be your friend, so you try to get on the good side of the older, popular girl, and she tells you to go make friends with me, the Malfoy, and you believe her because you don’t know me. You’re a Weasley, and probably all you’ve ever heard about my family is that we’re the most Slytherin family there is, so when she tells you in secret, like a nice big sister, that if you could just make friends with me, they’d all like you—when she says that, you believe her. And then they’re all nice at dinner, and you think things are going well, and then she tells you I love roses, and of course you believe her because she’s been so nice and helped you make friends, and she even conjures one for you to give to me, and you show me the rose and I _scream_.” Rose looked down.

“They won’t let me sleep in the dorm,” she muttered, “but if Sinistra catches me out after curfew, we’ll all get in trouble.”

“You can sleep in our dorm then,” Hiro said firmly. “I’m sure none of the girls would have a problem with it.” 

“I’m in _Slytherin_ ,” Rose said. “I’m not sleeping in Hufflepuff for seven years.” 

“Tell Sinistra then, and if she doesn’t do something, tell Hillstone. There’s no way Hillstone would let them get away with that.”

“That’s not how it works in Slytherin,” she huffed. She looked at Scorpius as if pleading for him to back her up, but he had an idea.

“Help me figure out what’s going on with the Selkies,” Scorpius said.

“ _What_?”

“I told you, it wasn’t a dream. Selkies don’t normally act like that. There’s something going on. If we figure out _what_ , I bet we could earn a lot of house points, and there’s nothing Slytherins like more than winning the House Cup.”

“Except the Quidditch Cup,” Hiro said. “But what’s going on with the Selkies?”

“Scorpius says they took him to the bottom of the lake last night,” Rose said.

“What were you doing in the _lake_ at night?”

“I don’t know.” Scorpius shrugged. “Not the point though. The Selkies never interact with students. My dad said it was a big deal his fourth year when they helped with the Triwizard Tournament because they prefer to be left on their own, so _something_ is going on.”

“Why not just tell Kobayashi?”

“And admit he was not only out of bed at night but even in the lake?” Rose scoffed. “That’ll take ages though, Scorpius. We don’t have anything to go off, just your claim that they pulled you down to their village. If we’re going to figure it out, we’d have to go back _in_ the lake, and how are we supposed to get to the bottom alive? We hardly know any spells.”

“Potter did it with gillyweed,” Hiro said. “Bet we could get some.”

“Okay, fine,” Rose said, “but how is this going to solve my sleeping problem?”

“Simple,” Scorpius said. “Convince one of them to help.”

“And how am I supposed to do that?” Rose spat.

Scorpius shrugged. “You’re the one who’s supposed to be cunning.”

“Nott hates you,” Rose said slowly. Scorpius could practically see the plan slowly forming in her mind. “So I convince her I hate you. Or at least that I’m just using you. I found out about the Selkies from you, but I’m going to figure it out and get all of the credit. Slytherin will. I can even make you do all the work.”

“That doesn’t seem fair,” Hiro said.

“It sounds like something my grandparents would do,” Scorpius said. 

“You’ll have to pretend to not know,” Rose said. “Sweet and innocent, like you don’t really know I’m using you.”

“I don’t know a thing.”

“I’ll help, of course. I just mean they’ll think I’m having you do everything.” Rose looked at Hiro. “You’ll keep quiet, won’t you?” Hiro looked to Scorpius.

“It’s the best plan we have,” Scorpius said.

“Fine,” Hiro said. “But it’d be a lot easier if we just told the Headmistress. You’d have your dorm back, _and_ she could worry about the Selkies.”

“Fine, we’ll make it plan B,” Rose said. “I’m going to go. Wait a moment before you go in case anyone’s watching.” Then she left the room.

“Merlin, Scorpius,” Hiro said. “Of all the friends you could make, you pick that one.” 

After a few minutes had passed, they left the room and made their way back to the dorm, quietly agreeing to a cover story along the way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hiro Shimano, you were named for two—well, not Headmasters. Cooler than that.
> 
> Hiro's first name is from the character Hiro Nakamura on NBC's Heroes, though, of course, that's not where his magical parents got the name. They've never watched muggle television, though of course Hiro would love the show and especially his namesake. His last name, on the other hand, has a more somber (and timely) inspiration: on 19 February, 1942, exactly 74 years ago this past Friday, the United States ordered all Japanese-Americans sent to be incarcerated in "interment" camps. Eddie Shimano, a real person and Japanese-American, was sent to the Santa Anita "assembly center" (basically a temporary camp while the long-term ones were being built), the same location as the mall in which I would later spend much of my teen years loitering. There, he became the editor for a newspaper (within the camp) called The Pacemaker. It is because of that paper, which has been preserved in the local library archives, that I know his name and gave it to Hiro. Of course, Eddie Shimano did a lot more with his life than that one newspaper, and he's someone Hiro would be honoured to have been named after: http://encyclopedia.densho.org/Eddie_Shimano/


	14. Defense Against the Dark Arts

“Where are the _desks_?” a Ravenclaw boy said when Professor Kobayashi let them into their Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom the next morning. The room was bright and spacious, with sofas pushed against the walls, a couple chests overflowing with an assortment of magical objects, and one desk in the corner by a window. The walls were lined with charts, diagrams, and drawings which all seemed to depict some kind of defensive spell or the dark arts they might expect to come across. 

“Defense Against the Dark Arts is a practical class,” Professor Kobayashi, gliding to the far end of the room and turning to face the class. “My job is to prepare you to survive in the wizarding world. It would be a waste of all of our time to stick you in desks and ask you to memorise information when what you really need is to learn how to think quickly and wisely under pressure. The best way for you to learn that is to practice, so if you would all gather around in a circle, we are going to jump right in with some of the most basic defensive techniques you might need. And please don’t split yourselves up with Hufflepuffs on one side and Ravenclaws on the other, or I will have to mix you up myself.” After everyone exchanged glances, whispers, and shrugs with their friends beside them, the class all started to move. Scorpius pushed down his sense of dread and reminded himself that Nico was in Ravenclaw, so they couldn’t _all_ be mean. Even if Nico hadn’t talked to him since arriving at Hogwarts. His worrying was interrupted by a tap on his shoulder.

“Malfoy, right?” Scorpions turned and saw one of the Ravenclaws they’d met the other day grinning nervously at him. 

“Yeah,” Scorpius said. “Er, sorry, I forgot your name.” 

“Szymon Kawczynski.” 

“Sorry, could you say it slower?” 

“Szy—” Scopius thought it sounded like the beginning of “ship,” “—mon.” The second part sounded the same as in Simon to Scorpius. 

“Szymon,” Scorpius tried. 

Szymon grinned. “Perfect!”

“And your surname again?” Scorpius asked, but Professor Kobayashi waved for attention, and the class quickly quieted down. 

“Wands out, please,” she said, “but don't point them at anyone. Best to keep them pointed at the ground like this.” She pulled out her wand and hung her arm down the side of her chair, wrist bent toward the ground. The class did as instructed. Justin grinned at Scorpius from the other side of the circle and pointed with his free hand at his own wand. The night before, Scorpius and Zena had shown Justin and the other Hufflepuff first years who'd never held a wand before the right way to do it. It was obvious which of the Ravenclaws had never held a wand before, but the Hufflepuffs, Scorpius thought proudly, were all on equal footing. Jessica, who had only just learned the night before, was even showing the Ravenclaw beside her the proper way. Szymon had started out holding his wand upside down, as if to stab someone with it, but Scorpius helped him get it right, and soon the whole class had their wands out, pointed carefully at the ground. 

Professor Kobayashi and a Ravenclaw she had been speaking to went to the center of the circle for what Professor Kobayashi explained was a demonstration of what they would all be doing in a moment. Professor Kobayashi handed the girl her wand, and the Ravenclaw immediately pointed the wand straight at Professor Kobayashi. The Hufflepuffs and some of the Ravenclaws gasped. Natasha, Omar, and Szymon all rushed forward, only to be flung backward by an invisible barrier. Omar and Natasha managed to catch themselves, but Szymon fell over and landed on his rear with a thud. A burst of laughter exploded from one corner of the room, and as soon as he and one of the Ravenclaws had helped Szymon back to his feet, Scorpius shot an angry look at the source of the laughter: Karen Kim. 

“Okay,” Professor Kobayashi said, cutting Karen’s laughter short, “so does anyone have any observations on what just happened? Has anyone learned anything?” The girl had let her arm fall to her side, still holding Professor Kobayashi’s wand. 

“Shield charms hurt,” Natasha said. Some of the class laughed.

“Thank you, Miss Blackthorn. Sorry about that. Could you share with the class why you ran forward?”

“Obviously because I thought she might curse you,” Natasha said, as if it were the only possible thing to conclude when your classmate points a wand at your professor. “I mean, you didn’t have a wand or anything—”

“Did you have a plan for what you were going to do about it? If there haven’t been a shield charm?”

Natasha shrugged. “I don’t know. I hadn’t thought that far ahead. I just reacted,”

“I was just going to tackle her,” Szymon said. “It’s not like I know any magic, but I used to play rugby.”

“Excellent point, Mister Kawczynski,” Professor Kobayashi said. Szymon’s eyebrows shot up in surprise when she said his name—correctly, Scorpius assumed. “The first and most important lesson I would like all of you to learn in this class is to know your strengths and use them. The second lesson is this: Miss Meijer, if you would.” The girl pointed the wand at Professor Kobayashi again. In a flash, Professor Kobayashi twisted the wand out of her hand and pointed it at her. “Disarming without magic.” She spun the wand in her hand and handed it back to the girl again. “If you can get a wand out of someone’s hand fast enough, it can save your life. You wouldn’t believe how often a witch or wizard finds themself unarmed with a wand pointed straight at them. Watch again.” 

They spent the rest of the class going over different ways to defend themselves without a wand. For each new skill, Professor Kobayashi would demonstrate a few times with a volunteer, and then she would send them off into pairs (“Find someone from the other house! Make friends!”) to practice, offering help and advice as she went around the room. Scorpius spent the whole lesson paired up with Szymon. Szymon, it turned out, was friendly and not at all concerned about who Scorpius’ parents were, which was a huge relief to Scorpius. He was also much faster and stronger than Scorpius though, so by the time the lesson finished, Scorpius felt ready to collapse. Instead of a break though, Professor Kobayashi had told the Hufflepuffs they were having lunch in the common room so she could talk to them about something important.

“Wonder what’s so important,” Omar said as they walked. Scorpius shrugged. 

“Double Defense Against the Dark Arts first thing in the morning is a crime,” Ashley chimed in. “Kobayashi probably just wants to apologise for putting us through hours of that.” 

Omar laughed. “Who’d you have?” 

“Scamander. Horribly clumsy, tried to make up for it with brute force. I’m sure I’m going to have bruises tomorrow. Thank Merlin he’s so scrawny. You two?”

“Szymon,” Scorpius said. “He tried to go easy on me, but, I mean, I’m probably the scrawniest in our whole year. I never had a chance. Think I’ll have to sleep a week straight before I recover.”

“I was with Iskikian,” Omar said. “She kept trying to distract me so she could catch me off guard. That, or she just really wanted to know the strangest things about me.”

“Maybe that’s her talent. Weird questions.” The other two laughed as Scorpius tapped the barrels.

The first thing Scorpius noticed upon walking into the common room was the house elf. She had clean, white tunic that fit snugly, matching white leggings, and a tall, white hat. Her sleeves were rolled back, and there was a quill resting on her ear. The second thing he noticed was the Headmistress, who was knelt down, talking to the elf. 

“Ah, here they are!” The Headmistress said, beaming at them. She stood up, and Scorpius couldn't help but feel nervous. Something was clearly going on. “You all look like you've seen a thestral,” she said. “Or the headmistress in your common room, which I imagine is just as frightening. Since a few of you were asking about our kitchen staff though, I thought while you're here, I'd introduce you to—”

“Milly!” Natasha, who had just walked into the common room, squealed. She pushed through the other Hufflepuffs, ran to the elf, and gave her a tight hug. Headmistress Hillstone laughed. 

“I see someone has been sneaking off to the kitchens.” Natasha’s face paled. “I used to sneak out to the kitchens almost every night when I was a student, didn't I, Milly?” Milly laughed, and Natasha’s jaw fell open. “There’s no rule against visiting the kitchens before curfew, but there is a curfew, and I do ask that you keep to it. I still visit the kitchens at night sometimes, and I would hate to have to take points from Hufflepuff if I found any of you out after curfew.” She winked at them. Then she pulled out her wand and turned toward away from them. She waved it and her free arm in broad, sweeping strokes. The sofas flew to the edges of the room, and a large, round table took their place in the centre of the room. Another swish, and yellow cushions appeared on the wooden bench around the perimeter of the table. Milly the elf clicked her fingers, and shining plates like those in the Great Hall appeared on the table, plentiful with food. 

“Who’s hungry?” Milly asked. 

“Go on then,” Headmistress Hillstone said. “Professor Kobayashi had to take care of something first, but she’ll be up to join us soon.” Milly waved to Natasha and the Headmistress and left, presumably off to the kitchens again.

“How come you’re here?” Zena asked as they filled in the seats around the table. Scorpius took the seat beside Justin and didn’t notice at first when the Headmistress took the seat on his other side.

“The same reason you’re here. Professor Kobayashi has something important to talk to all of us about. Could you pass the gravy please, Miss De la Cruz?” Jessica passed the gravy, and the Hufflepuffs quickly became more interested in eating than in their Headmistress. “How are you finding Hogwarts, Scorpius?”

“Tiring,” he said. “Defense Against the Dark Arts was tiring at least.” 

She smiled. “Professor Kobayashi just likes to push students. Don’t be afraid to tell her you need a break. What about your other classes?” Across the table, Scorpius saw Hiro staring at him, gesturing his head toward the Headmistress. Scorpius ignored him.

“They’re all good. I didn’t know house elves could fly!”

“Professor Arrow is one of the best. It’s a shame house elves aren’t allowed to play quidditch professionally yet, but I suppose we wouldn’t have such a good flying instructor if he’d been able to seek for the Falcons.” 

“He was going to play for the _Falcons_? That’s the second best team in the league!”

“Who’s the first?”

“Harpies.” He scoffed. Everyone knew Harpies were the best team. 

“Oh, of course, your mother played for them, didn’t she?”

“Yeah, beater!” Hiro was glaring at him now.

“She used to skive off my classes to practice all the time.”

“You taught my _mum_?” 

“Yeah, I had her my very first year.”

“What was she like?”

“Wicked smart, incredibly stubborn, much better than me at Transfiguration. She should have been teaching the lessons, really, if she would have just shown up. Brave, too. One of the bravest young girls I’ve ever known.” Scorpius suddenly had a million questions, but before he could pick one to start with, Zena interrupted.

“You taught Transfiguration?”

“What’s Transfiguration?” Justin asked. 

“Ooh, show him! Transfigure something!” The rest of the table started dropping their conversations, excited by the prospect of seeing their Headmistress do magic.

“Sure,” Headmistress Hillstone said. “What would you like me to transfigure?”

“Turn something into a fish,” Hiro said, his eyes locked on Scorpius. Scorpius shook his head quickly. He knew Hiro wanted him to tell the Headmistress about the Kelpies, and part of him thought Hiro was right, but he had promised Rose, and anyway he had more important things to talk to Headmistress Hillstone about. Like his mother, he thought with a jolt of excitement.

“I could. Before I transfigure something into a living being though, I always ask myself what happens once it’s there and alive. Fish need to be in water to survive. I could make a fish tank and fill it with water, but—”

“What about another animal?” Jessica asked. “Do your favourite animal!”

Headmistress Hillstone laughed. “Try not to scream,” she said. She pulled out her wand, picked up her knife, and waved her wand over it. The knife grew longer and thickened, dark green scales appeared, and the newly transfigured snake wrapped itself around her arm. Ashley swore loudly, Omar let out a high pitched squeak, and everyone except Scorpius moved away quickly. 

“Your favourite animal is a _snake_?” Justin said shrilly.

“It’s just a garter snake,” Scorpius said. “They’re harmless.” He looked at Headmistress Hillstone. “Can I hold it?”

“Of course,” she said. She carefully untangled the snake from her arm and placed it in Scorpius’ outstretched hands. Growing up in the English lowlands, Scorpius would occasionally find a snake in the yard and, much to his parents’ horror, pick them up. He loved the feeling of snakes’ smooth scales as they slid across his hands, and there was only one venomous species of snake in all of Britain anyway. 

“See?” Scorpius said, holding the snake up toward Justin. “Perfectly fine.” Justin leaned away.

“Merlin, Julia,” a familiar voice said from the entrance of the common room. Scorpius turned and saw Professor Kobayashi gliding toward the table. “Did you bring your snake to lunch?” She was laughing, and Headmistress Hillstone grinned back at her.

“They wanted to see some transfiguration.” Professor Kobayashi put a hand over her face. “I was _specifically_ asked to transfigure something into my favourite animal.”

“Are you going to set it free, or do we have _another_ snake now?” Professor Kobayashi took the space on the other side of Headmistress Hillstone that Zena had vacated to get away from the snake.

“Scorpius here seems quite fond of the snake.” She looked at him. “Would you like to keep—”

“No,” Professor Kobayashi said firmly. “There will be no snakes in the dormitories. Scorpius, I am sure the Headmistress would be happy to let you visit—” 

“I think it should go free,” Scorpius said. Out of the corner of his eye, Scorpius saw the Hufflepuff boys all sigh in relief. He stood up. “Can I take it out now?” Professor Kobayashi and the Headmistress exchanged looks.

“Here,” Headmistress Hillstone said, “I’ll go with you.” She stood up as well, and they walked out of the common room together.


	15. Signs

“Is Professor Kobayashi angry?” Scorpius asked after they reached the main halls of the castle. 

“Angry?”

“About the snake.”

She laughed. “No, not at all. She's only teasing.”

“Oh. Good.” They walked in silence as Scorpius’ mind raced with questions. He wanted to know about his mum. He wanted to know why he’d been put in Hufflepuff. He wanted to know about the Selkies. He wanted to know about Regulus Black and why Professor Kobayashi gave him the book and why—

“Professor Kobayashi was right, by the way,” she said. “I would be more than happy to have you visit Boros anytime.”

“Boros?”

“The snake who lives with me.”

“Oh.”

“He lives in my office just down the hall, past the kitchens, second right, end of the hallway. Ask one of the other students to show you sometime.”

Scorpius nodded. “Thanks, Professor.” The way his parents had talked about Dumbledore and McGonagall, the Headmasters they’d had, he didn’t think you could just go visit the Headmistress’ _snake_. And even if you could, he reminded himself, people already thought he was evil. He didn’t need to make things worse, hanging around with snakes all the time. Just because he knew even former Death Eaters were terrified of snakes didn’t mean anyone else did.

A more urgent thought crossed his mind when they stepped out onto the grounds though: Selkies. He had an idea.

“What lives in the lake? Arav said there are mermaids in there.” It wasn’t exactly a lie. Arav _had_ said there were mermaids in the lake, but 

“There are,” she said. “Scottish Selkies, really. And there’s the Giant Squid, grindylows, plenty of fish—”

“What are they like? The Selkies, I mean.”

“I don’t really know, to tell you the truth. The ones here don’t usually interact with humans much and just keep to themselves. Here, this is as good a spot as any. Why don’t we set the snake down here?” She pointed to the grass at their feet. 

“Yes, ma’am.” They both crouched down, and Headmistress Hillstone helped Scorpius set the snake in the grass. She made a strange hissing noise at the snake, and Scorpius jumped. “ _You’re a Parseltongue_?” he shrieked.

She laughed but quickly stopped. “No, not at all. I just said adios in my best snake voice. It’s Spanish for goodbye.” Scorpius stared at her. “I apologise, Scorpius. I didn’t realise it would frighten you.” She stood up and held her hand out to Scorpius. He stared at her hand.

“What was the word again?”

“Adios.”

“Adios,” he repeated.

“It means goodbye.”

“Adios,” he said again. He took her hand, and she pulled him to his feet.

“C’mon, Professor Kobayashi has something important to talk to us about.”

 

When they walked back into the common room, everyone was standing in pairs, facing each other, and waving their hands around in front of them weirdly.

“Ah, there you are,” Professor Kobayashi said when she saw them. They both walked over to her. “Right, Scorpius, I’ve just explained to your housemates that there’s one other first year in Hufflepuff who you haven’t met just yet. She’s been a bit ill, so she’s been staying in the Hospital Wing while she gets better, but she should be moving into the dorms later this week. She’s Deaf, so I’ve been teaching your housemates how to introduce themselves in sign language so we can be sure she feels welcome. Why don’t you go join Michael and Ashley, and they can teach you.” Scorpius nodded and made his way over to Michael and Ashley.

“Hey, Scorpius. Is the snake nice and safe now?” Ashley asked.

“Yeah. Can you show me how—?”

“Michael’s better at it. You show him.”

“Okay, first thing, make your hand like this,” Michael said. He held his hand up with his index and middle finger up. Scorpius did the same. “Yeah, almost, just put them together.” He pushed Scorpius’ index and middle finger together. “Perfect. So then you just tap those fingers to your head—” he put his own two fingers to his forehead, “—and then turn them like this.” He turned his palm toward Scorpius as he pulled his hand away from his forehead. Scorpius did the same, and Michael grinned. “Brilliant. Then just point one finger to your chest—” he pointed his index finger to his chest, and Scorpius copied, “—and that’s how you say, ‘My name is.’” They went over it a few more times until Scorpius was sure he got it, and then Michael and Ashley, with some help from Professor Kobayashi, showed Scorpius how to spell his name.

“Oh, and don’t forget hello!” Ashley said, once Scorpius had nearly gotten it. She waved her hand in a circle, her palm out. Scorpius tried to copy her, and after a few tries and corrections from Michael and Ashley, managed to get it right. Scorpius was sure he’d forget it all before the end of the day, but Professor Kobayashi gave them each a small book that had pictures of witches and wizards signing some basic phrases and the alphabet.

“The Prefects have all been practicing,” Professor Kobayashi said as they all gathered their things to head off to Transfiguration, “so you can ask them if you need any help. There’s usually at least one around in the common room in the evenings, so please make use of them being around to help.” 

The Hufflepuffs all said their “yes, professor”s and hurried out to climb the many, many staircases to their Transfiguration lesson, hopefully without getting lost on the way.


	16. Transfiguration

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Happy Asian and Pacific History Month! The three-day weekend confused me, but at least the update is only one day late! I am probably going to miss an update or two over the next 2-3 weeks because I am moving on the 18th and have way too much to get done before then (like packing). I'll try to keep up with updates anyway, as it's nice to escape for a bit to hang out with Scorpius and friends, but if I don't update, you know why. Anyway, I'll stop interrupting the story with my babbling now.

“Did you tell her?” Hiro hissed into Scorpius’ ear. 

“What? Who?”

“The Headmistress. About Weasley.” Scorpius felt a sudden pang of guilt. He hadn't even _thought_ about Rose. He had been too busy thinking about himself. He was selfish. He— “We need a better plan.”

“What?”

“I get it. You can't tell. Slytherins are weird, and I don't understand them, but you're the expert, so it's _fine_. I'll trust you on that much. But your plan still sucks.”

“Our plan is _fine_ ,” Scorpius said. 

“Your plan requires gillyweed, and I checked, and the only way to get gillyweed is from Professor Longbottom, and there's no way he'll give it to you unless you have a really good reason. Gillyweed is _dangerous_. You could _die_.”

“Do you have a better plan?”

“Besides telling someone? No, but we could ask one of the older students. Maybe you can transfigure yourself into a fish. My parents said their transfiguration teacher could turn into a cat, so it must be possible.”

“Transfiguration is really complicated magic.”

“That's why we ask one of the older students.”

“Convince Rose first.”

Hiro laughed. “Convincing a Slytherin to change their mind is like trying to ask a sphinx to just _give_ you the answer.” Scorpius glared at Hiro. “Okay, okay, I'll try.”

 

Professor Singh, their transfiguration professor, was by far the oldest living teacher at Hogwarts, a fact he made sure to tell them. He was a tall, thin man with a black turban, which, he assured them, was not hiding any Dark Wizards. The former Headmistress had made sure to check before hiring him. (“Apparently, this school has a history of questionable hires,” he laughed.) 

Despite his age and his apparent fragility though, he spent the class bounding around the room as he talked about the joys of Transfiguration, only to freeze suddenly every so often to warn them that Transfiguration was the most dangerous magic taught at Hogwarts and there was to be no foolishness in his class. Then, just as suddenly, he would return to bounding around the room cheerfully. He asked strange questions, like when was the next time the full moon would fall on a Tuesday (January, it turned out), or what did the Headmistress have for breakfast (hash browns and beans on toast), or how many threads were in Professor Singh’s sock (none, he wasn't wearing any that day). Scorpius didn't understand why he was asking such weird questions, weirder even than Professor Stewart’s, but by the time they were let out of class, Scorpius was almost sad to go. _Almost_ because his sides were hurting from laughing at Professor Singh’s jokes. His stomach needed a break. 

 

They had the rest of the afternoon free after Transfiguration. After they had all written a joint letter to their new housemate Andrea (“Since all we can say is our names, we should tell her a bit about ourselves in a letter. You know, try to make her feel welcome,” Jessica said to a chorus of agreement.), Scorpius found himself caught between his new friends. Jessica wanted to learn more sign language, which Scorpius thought was a good idea because he had already forgotten how to sign his name. Justin was worried he didn't know enough about the wizarding world and wanted Scorpius to tell him more, and that sounded like a good idea, too. Then of course there was Hiro, who insisted they go to the library to come up with a better plan, which Scorpius conceded was also a good idea. 

In the end though, Scorpius told Hiro to just use the Hufflepuff library if he wanted his help so he could practice sign language with Jessica and the others while telling Justin everything he could think of about the wizarding world. Hiro was the only one who didn't think it was a great plan (“Our library is mostly just stories, not anything for research!”), but Scorpius said he would go with Hiro in the morning before their flying lesson, and Hiro muttered something about convincing Rose to accept help, quiet enough so only Scorpius could hear, and then started searching for any book that might be useful. Justin found one of Scorpius’ favourite childhood books on the shelf and started reading, asking Scorpius questions about everything. Scorpius liked answering, but he quickly discovered he couldn't think about Justin’s questions and signing at the same time. The problem wasn't the questions. The problem was that Scorpius’ hands never seemed to do what he wanted unless he focused really hard on them. He kept fumbling around and doing everything out of order. It was like his hands and his brain just couldn't get in sync with each other. Still, by the time they all went down for dinner, he had finally mastered his name and thought he had managed to get “How are you?” down, too. Not that he could answer the question, of course. It was something though. 

 

“Hey, Scorpius,” a familiar voice said part way through dinner. He turned and saw Nico standing behind him. “Do you mind?” Nico gestured toward the bench Scorpius was sitting on. 

“Oh, yeah, it's fine. Er, I mean—” Scorpius slid over to make space, and Nico sat down beside him and then looked at him seriously. 

“I want your help.”

“What?”

“I've been working on this project since first year, and it's very complicated to explain, and I keep running into problems trying to make it work, but I think I might have found a solution.”

“And you want my help?”

“Need, really. It’s a highly complex spell that requires a few wizards to work, and there aren't many people at Hogwarts who don't think I'm an insufferable nerd.” Nico grinned. “They're right, of course, but if I can make it work—which I will—it'll be the biggest breakthrough in the wizarding world since—since Albus Dumbledore discovered the twelve uses of dragon blood.”

“What's your project?”

“I'll show you. What are you doing tonight?”

“Astronomy.”

“Bollocks. That rules out tonight. Al has it tomorrow night, and I have it Thursday night, and then _Friday night_ —” Nico dragged out the phrase and rolled his eyes, “James insists I'm going to the Gryffindor party. As if I don't have better ways to spend my Friday night.” He scoffed. “Anyway, that just means we'll have to wait until Saturday. Got any plans Saturday?”

“Don't think so.”

“Right, meet me at eleven at Ravenclaw tower. Morning, I mean.”

“I don't know where—”

“I'll tell Al to bring you up straight after breakfast then. You've met him, right? James’ little brother?”

“Er, not really.”

“Oh, well, don't worry, he's great. I'll tell him to say hi to you next time you have class together. He's excited about the project, so I'm sure he'll think you're brilliant for helping.” Nico grinned. “Anyway, I need to get to the library. Come visit the Ravenclaw table sometime, yeah?” He put his hand on Scorpius’ shoulder and squeezed. Scorpius smiled back at him, and then Nico got up and left. Scorpius watched his robes flutter out behind him as he whisked down the hall and through the doors. 

“He seemed nice,” Jessica said. Scorpius jumped. He'd forgotten she had been sitting beside him. “Oh, sorry.”

“Were you listening?” Scorpius asked.

“Only enough to hear that there's a party Friday night,” Justin said. “I wonder if we can go. I've never been to a wizard party before!”

“Yes you have,” Jessica said. “ _We_ had a party.”

“That's not the same. It was just us.”

“And tons of cake,” Scorpius said. 

“Ask your friend how we get in.”

“I don't know if it's for first years. Why don't you ask one of the Gryffindors?”

“Yeah,” Jessica said, “why not ask that girl you were talking to after Transfiguration? Cohen?”

“Great idea!” Justin said. Then he jumped up and ran off in search of her.


	17. It's Really Just a Misnomer

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi. Apparently, moving and starting a new full-time job just took up everything in my brain, so it took longer than I expected to get focused enough on Scorp again. Or, rather, to get focused on this part of Scorp because character backstories and the rest of Scorpius' story have all been swirling around in my head daily. We should be back to a somewhat regular schedule now, but my days off/"weekend" are moving a lot over the next few weeks, so I don't have a set day for updates for now, sorry! Anyway, I'll stop interrupting the story with my rambling. Enjoy!

“Do you have to play with your food, Scorpius?” Hiro said at breakfast the next morning. “You promised you come with me to the library.” 

“I'm not _playing_ ,” Scorpius said. “It just tastes better.”

“There are _eyes_ on your sausage, which you have clearly carved into a snake.” Hiro pointed at the two beans Scorpius had placed on what was, indeed, a sausage carved in the shape of a snake. Creating eyeholes just the right size for the beans had been hard, but Scorpius was pleased with the result. 

“I'm a Hufflepuff,” Scorpius said. “Hard work makes everything taste better.” 

“Well if you'd hurry up, there's plenty of hard work waiting for us in the library.”

“We don't have lessons for _ages_.” Hiro frowned, and Scorpius sighed dramatically. “Five minutes.”

“I'll meet you up there.” With that, Hiro slipped off the bench, grabbed his bag, and walked out of the Great Hall. 

“What's with him?” Zena asked. 

Scorpius shrugged as he shovelled two whole hashbrowns into his mouth. 

“He's been in a right mood since Astronomy last night,” Jessica said. “Reckon he's just tired.”

_Irritated with Rose, more like_ , Scorpius thought. They had bickered in whispers the whole way up the Astronomy Tower, through class, and all the way back down until the Hufflepuffs and Slytherins went their separate ways to their dormitories. Rose simply could not be convinced to let Hiro tell _anyone_ , and Hiro was too, well, Hufflepuff to tell without her saying it was okay. 

Scorpius gulped down the last of his tea, shovelled a few last spoonfuls of beans into his mouth, tossed an egg on a slice of toast for takeaway, slung his bag over his shoulder, waved goodbye to his friends, and took off for the library. 

 

By the time Scorpius and Hiro were racing down Hogwarts’ many stone staircases for flying lessons, they had found all of nothing. Kelpies were quickly pushed out of Scorpius’ mind though as soon as he saw the broomsticks, twenty of them, neatly laid out on the grass of the quidditch pitch. 

“Are we _flying_ today?” a Ravenclaw girl Scorpius didn’t know said excitedly. 

Professor Arrow chuckled. “Only if your broom lets you.” He kicked off on his miniature broom and hovered just high enough so the class could all see him.

“What does _that_ mean?” Jessica whispered to the other Hufflepuffs.

“Basically everything in the magical world is temperamental,” Zena whispered back. “Like wands, brooms only work if they think you’re good enough.”

“Everyone, please find a broom and stand next to it!” Professor Arrow called out. “If you’re right-handed, you’ll want the broom on your right, and if you’re left-handed, you’ll want it on your left.” Quickly, the class scrambled to pick out the best broomsticks. Scorpius ended up with an old Nimbus 2001 on the far end next to Jessica. Once everyone had found a broomstick, Professor Arrow said, “Now, stick your hand over your broomstick and say _Up_!”

The pitch was immediately flooded with a series of shouts of “Up!” On his first try, Scorpius’ broom jumped straight into the air and smacked his hand hard before crashing back down to the grass. Others had far worse luck. Albus Potter’s broom had simply spun on the ground, knocking him off his feet, to a chorus of laughters from those near him. Jessica’s didn’t move at all until the fourth time she tried, at which point it simply flew away on its own. One of the girls in Ravenclaw had managed to get it to hover near her knees, but when she bent down to grab it, it clattered back to the ground. No one managed to convince their brooms to listen, though a few had tried just picking them up and were nursing bruises where their brooms had hit them. (Brooms, Scorpius’ parents had taught him, did not like to be picked up, and they would defend themselves if you tried.)

“Had enough yet?” Professor Arrow asked the class. He was answered by a series of groans. “You’ll never fly a broomstick if you can’t convince it to listen to you.” He then went into a brief lecture about broomstick communication and had the class try again, this time going around to help each student one by one. 

“ _Up_!” Scorpius said when Professor Arrow came to him. As it had done every time he'd tried, the broom shot off the ground, smashed into some part of his arm or hand—this time, it smacked painfully against his bony wrist—and then clattered back to the grass. 

“Almost!” Professor Arrow squeaked. “You've just got to grab it when it comes up.”

“I know _that_ ,” Scorpius said impatiently. “I'm just not fast enough.”

“Ah, no, Mister Malfoy, I think your _broom_ is just a bit too eager!” He pointed to the handle. “Do you know what broom this is?”

Scorpius squinted at the faded gold letters on the handle. “A Nimbus 2001?” he read. 

“Indeed it is. I reckon it's not just any Nimbus 2001 though. That broom knows a Malfoy when it sees one. Your grandfather donated a full set of Nimbus 2001s once upon a time.” Scorpius felt an uncomfortable twist in his stomach at the mention of his grandfather and tried to shake the image of anything, even just a broom, thinking he was like Lucius Malfoy. “Slytherin donated them all to the school after the war, best school brooms we've ever had. I wouldn't be surprised if this one was once your father’s.” 

Scorpius looked down at the broom and glared. He would not have some broom his grandfather bought smack him in the hand again. “ _Up!_ ” he said again, and it flew back up again and, for the first time, stopped mid-air, just below his hand. Professor Arrow squealed and clapped. Scorpius hesitated, and then he snatched the broom. 

“Well done!” Scorpius felt a smile creep across his face, which he forced back down. He didn’t like the idea of anything being in his blood because that was the sort of thing his grandparents would say, but maybe, just maybe, even though he was clumsy at everything else, flying might be in his blood. 

 

After lunch, they had History of Magic with the Slytherins, taught by Professor Binns, who, much to the surprise of everyone who hadn't heard stories about him from their families, was a ghost. He wasted no time with introductions and simply began lecturing about ancient wizarding history in a voice so dull, Scorpius could barely keep himself awake. 

“I thought having a ghost for a professor would be cool,” Justin said as they walked out of class. “And history of magic _sounds_ like it would be wicked, but—”

“Don't worry,” Zena said, “my brother told me the Headmistress makes him have guest lecturers all the time, so it won't _always_ put you to sleep.”

“Like who?” Jessica asked. 

“Dunno. I just remember they had to go into the Forbidden Forest for class when—”

“Isn't that, well, _forbidden_?”

“You'd think so,” Hiro said, “but my mum had detention in there loads.”

“It's more like the Super Dangerous So Keep Our But We’ll Make You Go As Punishment Anyway Forest,” Scorpius said. 

“That's barbaric,” Omar said. 

“That's Hogwarts,” Hiro said. 

“Hey, Scorpius!” A voice called from above them. Scorpius looked up and saw Aarav hanging over the railing of a moving staircase, smiling down at him. Scorpius smiled back.

“Ooh, are you meeting with Aarav now?” Jessica asked. The staircase reached the end of its arc, and Aarav slipped away from the railing to jog down.

“Yeah, I thought we were meeting in the common room,” Scorpius said. “I’ll catch up with you later.” Scorpius quickly exchanged goodbyes with the other first years, and then they headed off toward the common room without him.

“Hey,” Aarav said, breathless, when he caught up with Scorpius. “All right there, Scorpius?” 

“Yeah.” Then, remembering his manners, Scorpius quickly added, “You?” 

“Yeah, good, thanks. You want to head outside again? I grabbed my Exploding Snap deck this morning if you want to play.”

“I’ve never played.”

“Never?”

Scorpius shrugged. “My parents think it’s too violent. They don’t like me playing wizard chess either. We only have the muggle kind at my house.”

“We don’t have to play if you don’t want to.”

“Oh, no, I’d love to! I just don’t know how.”

“I’ll teach you. C’mon.” Aarav smiled and held out his hand. Scorpius smiled back and put his hand in Aarav’s, and together they walked down through the rest of the castle and out into the September sunshine.


	18. Chapter 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hello! Life is wild. Internet has been hard. Just a brief update here, feel free to just skip straight to the story:
> 
> I have a bunch of chapters hopefully being posted soon because I have been writing, but I've been writing on my phone in free moments, so there is a lot of revision that needs to happen before they can be posted. I'm moving to Finland (oh my hedwig, what is life) in a few weeks, so there will probably be some disruption to regular posting and who even knows what life will be like, so I'm not committing to a regular schedule until I settle in and figure out what's going on. Please know that I love y'all, and I love this story, and I love Scorpius, and JKR made such a mess of Next Gen with Cursed Child that I am 100% committed to not letting her have the final say, so this story is definitely going to keep on chugging along. Thanks for sticking with this story, with Scorpius and friends, and with me. You're the best.

The water was so still, Scorpius could make out constellations on the lake’s surface. The moon was full and bright, and a distant howling reminded Scorpius of his parents’ warnings about the Forbidden Forest and its many inhabitants. He wondered what they would say if they could see him now. 

He had woken up in the middle of the night again, drenched in sweat, and this time he wasted no time slipping out to the lake. Again, nothing stopped him. Again, locked doors opened themselves as he approached. And again, he found himself alone at the lake at night. 

He decided not to touch the water this time. He had promised himself that much when he snuck out of bed, a sort of compromise to silence the part of himself that insisted that sneaking out of the castle at night was _against the rules_. (That part of him was right, of course, but secret underground Quidditch leagues were against the rules too, and this was surely more important, he reasoned.) 

His parents wouldn't understand, Scorpius decided. His father would panic and tell him never to do it again, only to then worry that he sounded like _his_ father and tell Scorpius that he _trusts_ him so he could do whatever he thinks is best, _just please be careful, son_. His mother would think he was doing it to be like her and tell him that only fools and Gryffindors are brave just for the sake of bravery, and he was neither of those things. Sneaking out at night needed a _reason_ , and Scorpius had one, but how could he explain it? The lake had _called_ to him that first night, and he could still feel it. And why else would the castle doors magically open except that he was _supposed_ to go to the lake? His mother had told him stories about how the castle itself would sometimes help her, staircases suddenly changing when she stepped on to lead her straight to something she needed—or away from something she didn't. She said the castle was full of ancient magic, built up over centuries by the thousands and thousands—maybe even millions—of witches and wizards who lived and worked there. Ancient magic, she said, that liked to lead its inhabitants toward their destinies—for better or for worse. 

Not that Scorpius thought the lake was his _destiny_ , not in any grand sense at least. Destiny was the sort of thing _important_ people had, and he didn't want to be important. Important people needed evil to fight—or were evil themselves. Harry Potter wouldn't have been important without Voldemort, after all, and his family were only important because they were Death Eaters. If being important meant being important like his family—

Scorpius shook the thought away and reached into his bag for the book Kobayashi had given him. He needed to know who was in it. He flicked to the back to find the index, like his father had taught him, and found M. _Malfoy, Draco_. His heart leapt. His father was mentioned on a few different pages. Below, amongst other Malfoys, he saw _Malfoy, Lucius_ and _Malfoy, Narcissa_ , but no _Malfoy, Astoria_. He flipped to G and found her— _Greengrass, Astoria_ followed by _Greengrass, Daphne_. 

He closed the book suddenly. Just because they were mentioned in the book didn't mean it said anything good about them. After all, his grandfather was in it. Scorpius couldn't imagine his grandfather had ever been _heroic_ , and he certainly hadn't done anything like betraying Voldemort like Black did. Grandfather Malfoy was still bitter that Voldemort lost, even if he pretended to have had a change of heart in public. Scorpius’ father had been a Death Eater too, and Scorpius suspected there was so much he didn't know about that. He wasn't sure he was ready to find out. 

He was here for the lake, he reminded himself, looking back out on its surface. Scorpius stared at it for several minutes, looking for—well, he didn't really know what he was looking for. When he grew tired of staring and getting nothing, he decided to try talking to it. 

“It's me again. Scorpius.” He hesitated, then: “Scorpius Malfoy.” The lake stayed still and silent. Scorpius leaned closer to the surface. “If anyone in there can hear me, could you, I dunno, give a splash?” He waited, but still nothing happened. Scorpius groaned and leaned back again. “Of course you can't hear me,” he said. “You're just _water_.” Scorpius shoved the book back in his bag, climbed out of his hiding spot, and huffed off back along the lakeside toward the castle underneath the moonlight. 

Another howl caught Scorpius off guard—was the sound getting _closer_?—and he tripped. 

“Argh!” Scorpius cried as his hand collided with a sharp, slippery rock and slipped beneath him. His hand plunged into the shallow water, and something brushed his hand. Quickly, he scrambled away from the lake, pulled himself up, and sprinted toward the castle, this time arcing his path far away from the lake. The castle doors threw themselves wide open as he approached, and Scorpius raced through, his footsteps echoing loudly through the halls, not even caring if he got caught out of bed. 

“Oooh, an ickle firsty!” An awful voice screeched as he ran down the last corridor. _Peeves_. Hogwarts’ awful, rude poltergeist. “ICKLE FIRSTY OUT OF BED!!” Scorpius panicked. He thought he didn't care about being caught, but with Peeves screeching, he realised just how much he didn't want to be caught by Professor _Kobayashi_. He didn't know where exactly she slept, but he knew all the Heads of Houses were supposed to sleep near their houses, and—

A portrait flung open suddenly. For a moment, Scorpius thought it must be Kobayashi, but then a very small hand reached out and snapped. Peeves’ screeching stopped immediately, though his mouth kept moving as he tried to screech. 

“Go wake up some other part of the castle, you insufferable pest!” A high pitched voice squeaked. “Come on then, boy,” it said, more kindly, to Scorpius. Scorpius hesitated, but the sound of something moving further down the hall spurred Scorpius to jump through the portrait and into the kitchens. The portrait shut quickly behind him. Inside, the kitchen was empty except for one house elf. The elf looked Scorpius up and down, hands on hips, and shook their head. “I don't even want to know,” the elf said. “No time anyway. If Kobayashi’s up, she'll be checking your beds first thing, so off you go. Here, give me your hand.” The elf stuck their hand out, and Scorpius obliged. Immediately, there was a crack, and for a brief moment, Scorpius felt like every bone in his body was being crushed. Then, just as suddenly, it was over, and the elf was shoving him into his bed and yanking the covers over him. Scorpius heard footsteps outside. “Come by sometime when you're not in trouble.” Another crack, and the elf was gone. The door creaked open, and Scorpius froze, hoping he looked asleep. There was a pause—Scorpius thought he heard someone whisper a spell—and then the door shut quietly. Silently, Scorpius swore never to sneak out again and quickly fell back asleep. 


End file.
